In the Fall of 2015 at Penn, I took Architecture 201. The class was centered around biomorphism - design that replicates or is inspired by living organisms. I chose to study the nose of the Greater Horseshoe Bat, with a specific focus to how it uses its nose to functionally direct sound over distances.

Inspired by the echolocation of the bat, I designed a space optimized for directing sound from one person's head to another. I designed the top half of the interior as an ellipse that would always direct sound to the other person in the sitting structure.

While, the interior of this structure is smooth, I wanted the exterior to be both more irregular and visually compelling, like the nose of the bat. To form the exterior, I deformed an ellipsoid to resemble an echolocation sound wave. From the front, the form is close to, but not exactly, symmetrical, just like a sound wave that a bat emits and is then reflected back to them. From the side, the form is reminiscent of other sounds structures, like a conch shell or even the cochlea in the ear. 

3-D printed model at 3/8'' = 1' scale