ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 626

Introduction
Developing the indoor thermal environment of Dubai Manahil cafe restaurant by implementing
basic strategies’ derived from the giant clam Tridacna Gigas life mechanism. The aim of this project is to attain the optimum comfort level for an existing project in terms of thermal comfort by
employing several design strategies’ gained from a natural living concept. The Tridacna Gigas was
assigned as the natural concept for this study; the main features, functions and even the anatomical part of this species were imitated to solve thermal design problems arising at the Manahil
cafe restaurant. The study aims at modifying the existing case study design defaults and improving the quality of the space through thermal performance analysis. Through the thermal analysis
study, we can figure out the thermal quality results for the space before and after the application
of design strategies. Therefore, the paper presents a study to attain the optimum thermal comfort
level for this cafe restaurant by imitating the function of the clam’s mantle tissue, e.g. by using the
maximum daylighting, reducing the heat flow, and using the natural ventilation. This process is
also called biomimicry.

Figure 1: Biomimicry (Doan 2012)
Biomimicry is defined as the art and science of imitating nature’s ideas, in order to solve human
problems. Biomimicry is imitating a natural concept life mechanism. It is derived from the Greek
were bios, stands for life and mimesis means to imitate (Vierra 2014). The designers come up with
a natural concept, study the natural concept and they basically derive some strategies and ideas
from this natural concept. The ideas are either derived from the natural concept anatomical or
functional part, these ideas are developed and then applied on the designer’s case study. The

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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy