As with all of nature's artificers, the principle of Integrating aerodynamic efficiency with structural form is applied by the Weaverbird, one of natural world's greatest builders. That is, a singular builder, armed with some basic skills, in this case, knot tying, braiding and grass weaving, can create a habitable structure of extraordinary lightness and strength. Although creating a building form from a weaving process has been limited to Middle Eastern and North African countries using long river grass strands bound together, bringing the weaving concept as a modern construction application is functionally possible.
Using thin strands of re-bar a building could be constructed by an inter-weaving method with all intersecting and overlapping points welded together to produce a wound armature of unprecedented strength and rigidity. Any flexible, lightweight material could be "woven" to produce a tensile structure based upon the weaverbird model. This results in a relatively lightweight structure that has uni-lateral tenuity as well as compressive resistance. Weaving a building is a method not commonly thought of in our western frame of reference. It is an approach that has great potential because, like the weaverbird, a few simple skills are all that is needed. Of course, where we humans are concerned, a building is more than its structure, it must have waterproofing, sheathing, insulation, plumbing, etc. The marvelous aspect of nature's structures, like the weaverbird, is that a few materials, grass, plant silk and twigs are all that is needed to have a wholly functional home.
Perhaps this principle of using fewer materials to create a complete "building" is in itself worth contemplation. It certainly includes many of nature's principles mentioned before. It is curious that the weaverbird is one creature that requires practice to perfect its construction technique. In this regard the weaverbird is similar to us--it must learn to build well.
The advantage of tension, overlap structures, like the weaverbird nest, is its ability to resist destruction. The typical "cut-and butt" framing approach of conventional architecture has little inherent resistance to being pulled apart as witnessed by the aftermath of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and flooding. Not surprisingly, bird's nests have been commonly retrieved from these catastrophes separated from their original location but completely intact--evidence of its superior tensile capacity.
Some of the strongest organisms in nature are overlap, tension structures; trees, plants, flowers, just about any fibrous structure relies on overlapping and a kind of inherent "weaving" within itself. This gives it the ability to transfer and disperse stresses without collecting loads in one place where it would weaken from the load. The weaverbird nest has no single area where stress and strain congregates; and that is its advantage.So, what do you think? Are the weaving skills of a weaver bird just came from nowhere? Or is there a wise designer who created this admirable bird?
