Engineers, designers and architects often look to nature for inspiration, aiming at innovation and the improvement of architectural quality. In several design studies, supervised by the author at the Vienna University of Technology in recent years, biomimetics by induction was successfully applied in architectural design. The design program “Biomimetics design exercise” delivered insights into the transformation process as well as the applicability of natural phenomena in architecture. In this paper the focus lies on the realm of plants. Some functional requirements and environmental conditions of plants are very similar to those of houses, and thus can deliver usable principles for architectural problems. A discussion of historic plant-inspired architectural projects frames the presentation of a
number of current students designs.