This building in Pamplona, Spain, by Vaillo & Irigaray & Galar is characterised by an outer skin that envelopes the facade. The perforated skin is modular in its appearance but reminiscent of origami or paper folding. In this way the project aims to create a link with the building program; Bio-Medical research, through the use of Biomimicry. Biomimicry or biomimetics is the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems. According to the architects, three references have been looked at to achieve similar adaptive systems; the camel as a paradigm for function, the polar bear skin as an example of multifunction, and the leaf as an integration between structural resolution and flexibility. Perhaps initially an unusual starting point for a building, at least the architecture hasn’t resorted to pastiche, but instead, a dynamic facade that combines both function and aesthetics. The sixth image below particularly reminds me of Arne Jacobsen’s St Catherine’s College in Oxford, which made use of a similar repetitive spatial module.
