Biomimesis, the imitation of animate and inanimate forms in nature to inspire new designs, is term introduced in the 20th century. The concept that there exist models and solutions in nature that may improve and optimize the way mankind lives has been the subject of much discussion. Although biomimesis as a well-defined discipline is a relatively recent concept, modeling nature is as old as mankind itself and can be seen in many different forms in all aspects of life. In the field of architecture there have been several designs created by imitating/modeling or aspiring to forms in nature. Most of the &ldquo / end products&rdquo / of these processes can be considered as milestones in the history of architecture, with their innovative form, structure, and construction techniques, and have resulted in developments in many fields through the pioneering of new and successful designs. The implementations of the concept of Biomimesis in the field of architecture are mostly observed in the design of forms. In the proposed study, besides those forms, structural behavior and the optimized response to internal and external loads of these forms, together with their geometrical configurations, have been studied to provide a methodology to understand relationships in nature for optimized structures and in the further steps a system design has been aimed. Within the frame work of methodology, in the first part of the study, form/structure groups in animate and inanimate nature are classified and their representative characteristics are discussed. The next part focuses on the &ldquo / shell&rdquo / , as a case to exemplify the proposed methodology. For this reason, the &ldquo / seashell&rdquo / form is chosen to explore the forms/structures in architecture. For this purpose, initially the definitions of a shell and its implementations in architecture have been examined and the &ldquo / real problem&rdquo / has been described: what are the codes in architecture to understand the language of shells in nature and how this knowledge can be translated to man made design. The modeling approaches of the researchers working on the seashells have been examined and parameters developed to generate a mathematical model closer to a real shell. A program has been written to generate the computational model of selected seashell Turitella Terebra as a case. Through a series of abstractions/assumptions first mathematical then computational model of the actual seashell have been obtained to explore the behavioral properties of shells. In the experimental part of the study, 86 shells have been exposed to compression tests, similar boundary conditions and loads have been applied to the computational model in two different FEA software, to compare simulation results with the experimental ones in order to check the precision and efficacy of the computational model. The results have been analyzed and a number of non-dimensional parameters are obtained. It is believed that potential relations in the realm of architecture regarding such non dimensional parameters would be a new era to talk new design methods and to construct optimized structures. Through this perception/thinking/designing/manufacturing method a platform would be formed to discuss the concept of Biomimesis in architecture subjectively.

This thesis addresses orchestration of servers amongst multiple co-hosted internet services such as e-Banking, e-Auction and e-Retail in hosting centres. The hosting paradigm entails levying fees for hosting third party internet services on servers at guaranteed levels of service performance. The orchestration of server ensemble in hosting centres is considered in the context of maximising the hosting centre's revenue over a lengthy time horizon. The inspiration for the server orchestration approach proposed in this thesis is drawn from nature and generally classed as swarm intelligence, specifically, sophisticated collective behaviour of social insects borne out of primitive interactions amongst members of the group to solve problems beyond the capability of individual members. Consequently, the approach is self-organising, adaptive and robust. A new scheme for server ensemble orchestration is introduced in this thesis. This scheme exploits the many similarities between server orchestration in an internet hosting centre and forager allocation in a honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony. The scheme mimics the way a honeybee colony distributes foragers amongst flower patches to maximise nectar influx, to orchestrate servers amongst hosted internet services to maximise revenue. The scheme is extended by further exploiting inherent feedback loops within the colony to introduce self-tuning and energy-aware server ensemble orchestration. In order to evaluate the new server ensemble orchestration scheme, a collection of server ensemble orchestration methods is developed, including a classical technique that relies on past history to make time varying orchestration decisions and two theoretical techniques that omnisciently make optimal time varying orchestration decisions or an optimal static orchestration decision based on complete knowledge of the future. The efficacy of the new biomimetic scheme is assessed in terms of adaptiveness and versatility. The performance study uses representative classes of internet traffic stream behaviour, service user's behaviour, demand intensity, multiple services co-hosting as well as differentiated hosting fee schedule. The biomimetic orchestration scheme is compared with the classical and the theoretical optimal orchestration techniques in terms of revenue stream. This study reveals that the new server ensemble orchestration approach is adaptive in a widely varying external internet environments. The study also highlights the versatility of the biomimetic approach over the classical technique. The self-tuning scheme improves on the original performance. The energy-aware scheme is able to conserve significant energy with minimal revenue performance degradation. The simulation results also indicate that the new scheme is competitive or better than classical and static methods.