Approaches inspired by nature have been present in many fields, including architecture and urban planning, with bionics, biomimetics, and biomimicry being the three bio-inspired design approaches commonly referred to. As a general terminology, Bionics began to be implemented in 1958 by Jack Steel as a combination of biology and technique; it focuses on the mechanical abilities of nature, extracting its physical principles as inspiration for developing a technical design. However, its practice can lead to unsustainable solutions since it does not consider the interaction of these solutions with sustainability (Landrum and Mead, 2022). Meanwhile, through understanding and analysis, biomimetics transfers characteristics, qualities, and systems from nature to the artificial environment (Urdinola-Serna and diseño, 2018). The term biomimetic, which comes from the roots bios (life) and mimesis (imitate), dates to 1969, thanks to the biophysicist and engineer Otto Schmitt, and focuses mainly on imitating nature, both in application and form. Finally, biomimicry was defined by Benyus in 1997 as the science that imitates the models of nature. That, in turn, uses an ecological standard that measures its interaction with the environment, which takes it one step beyond bionic and biomimetic, worrying about sustainability in its application (Landrum and Mead, 2022).

The biomimicry design process typically follows a bidirectional methodology that includes two complementary approaches, as outlined by Bader et al. (2021), Chayaamor-Heil (2023), and Urdinola-Serna and Diseño (2018). The first is the problem-oriented approach, where designers begin by identifying a specific design challenge or objective. Once the problem's parameters are clearly defined, they look to nature for strategies used by plants, animals, or ecosystems that might provide viable solutions.

The second is the solution-oriented approach, often from the biological sciences. In this method, researchers or scientifically informed designers begin by studying biological systems or behaviors that exhibit interesting or effective functions. These natural strategies are then analyzed for their potential relevance to human design problems, allowing biological insights to guide the development of innovative architectural or engineering solutions.

Together, these two approaches reflect the interdisciplinary nature of biomimicry, allowing design problems and biological knowledge to inform one another in a continuous, iterative process.