You may have purged all of the chemicals from your life and found that using cinnamon, cayenne or plain vinegar is all that you really need to prevent insects from invading your home, but the second you lay your eyes on a termite, all eco-friendly bets are off. The prehistoric-era winged critters, who happen to dine on cellulosic material such as wood, wallpaper, plastics and plant-based fabrics 24-7, are a homeowner's worst nightmare because they can literally bring your happy little home to its knees and leave just a shell behind.

Funny thing about termites, though.  They may be the sole reason why the Orkin man still has a job, but engineers, scientists and designers find them to be a fascinating subject to study considering that they possess remarkable construction prowess. What makes them even more admirable is that they employ thoroughly eco-friendly systems including the integration of locally available construction materials and the use of kinetic energy for effective architectural ventilation. They also incorporate most of their waste products either into the actual structure that they build or they extract energy from their waste products to support colony function (ultimately releasing all gas through the ventilation system built into their mounds).

Some tropical savanna species have been known to build large conical, dome and mushroom-shaped mounds up to 30 ft high containing very complex thermoregulation temperature control systems. This is just one of many aspects of termite construction which has prompted scientists to employ biomimicry (translation: to imitate life) to adapt the most desirable elements of their processes into our everyday lives in order to effectively solve various design challenges. In so many cases, nature tends to be light years ahead of us in terms of creating ideal systems and structures that even our modern technologies can't seem to touch.

Project TERMES (Termite Emulation of Regulatory Mound Environments by Simulation) is one such effort whereby the complex internal structure of termite mounds has been copied via pioneering 3D technology so that we can better understand how to apply its best features to human architectural and engineering construction practices. TERMES is intending to pave the way for future research which could reveal new sustainable approaches for human habitation and construction.

In a nod to the TERMES project, a swirling cross laminated solid Austrian spruce replica of a Namibian termite mound (scaled up so that humans could freely move through it) was created by a team of architects and engineers. Entitled "The Termite Pavilion," it is now on display right outside of London's Royal Festival Hall in London at an insect-inspired festival called Pestival.

Hoping to give people a real sense of what it's like to be on the inside of a termite mound, The Termite Pavilion design team attempted to recreate the graduated structural interior and piped in sound recordings from a real mound along with light effects that mimic its respiratory element. More than anything, they are trying to demonstrate to the public that there's a lot more to the hungry munchers than meets the eye.

According to Sandkings, "termites have evolved a construction technique which extends the thermo-regulatory, digestive, respiratory and pulmonary systems found within all animals into the structures they inhabit. These structures respond and adapt to constantly changing internal conditions and external weather influences, to maintain an equilibrium in which the colony (which consists of both the termites and the symbiotic fungi essential to the colony's health) can flourish."

What that means in layman's terms is that temperature and humidity remain a constant factor within termite mounds, rendering them complex living, breathing entities that lend to the overall health of the colony. If the colony's numbers grow (meaning that their rate of respiratory gas exchange increases), then they adapt by extending their mound upward so that it reaches stiffer winds capable of sweeping CO2 away. As human society continues adapting more sustainable living solutions, isn't it oddly amusing that one of the most intriguing eco-friendly architectural models we've encountered was created not by the finest modern minds but by insects that roamed the Earth millions of years before us?

Photo Credits: mueller-berghaupten.de, pestcontoldiy.com, itech.dickenson.edu, dezeen.com, inhabitat.com