Biomimicry and Product Design (Part 1) - Bio-inspired Design Domain

Have you asked what is bio-inspired design? How can nature support in the design process to find inspiration, and new and incredible solutions?

In this series of post, will be discussed more about biomimicry and how nature is present around us and how it can support us in our design process. And remember: Everybody is a designer! So, good read!

Bio-inspired Design Domain

Bio-inspired Design produces products or services developed from natural principles, through from the combination of bio-disciplines, generating the Biotechnology. Main disciplines found in the literature are Biomimicry, Biomimetic, Bionic, Biophilia, Biomechanics, Bio-utilisation, Bioremediation, Bio-survey, Biomorphic and Bio-affiliation. Differentiating in general by the comprehensiveness of them purposes or even by authors.

Biomechanics is the study of the mechanical physics of biological processes or structures. Are examples of its studies: the relation of muscles and bones movements, heart action, biofluids, animal locomotion, ergonomy, stress on tissues etc (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Example of biomechanics study. FONT: The Royal Society.

Biophilia is focused on human sensations looking for human´s connection with nature through experiences replication derivates of nature. The aim is to improve health and wellbeing supported by scientific studies. Most of the applications are found in architecture, interior design and urban design. Some of the benefits got with biophilia applications are stress reduction, cognitive performance improvement, and support positive emotions and mood. Thus, nature can be a font of inspiration to harmonising the human relations with objects and the environment (Bernett, 2017) (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Example of a biophilic office design. FONT: VerHalen.

Bionics, first appeared in 1960 US air force symposium, conceived by Jack Steele (a medical doctor), and it is defined as the creation of moderns engineering systems or a set of function, based on biological systems and methods found in nature (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Example of a bionic device. FONT: Rick Wilking/Reuters.

Biomimetics was introduced in 1969 by Otto Schmitt[1], and it can be understanding as the study and creation of structures, models, function, material, systems and methods, based on biological solutions.

 

The term Biomimicry (the junction of Bio = life and Mimicry = copy) was introduced by Janine Benyus (Biologist and co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8[2] and the Biomimicry Institute[3]) in 1997 with the publication of the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. By her words, “Biomimicry is learning from and then emulating nature’s forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable designs” (Biomimicry 3.8, n.d.) (Figure 6).

  

Once that the sustainability of all human creations and actions has been winning more importance, it has become one of the most important pillars of biomimicry, seeing that the solutions created by nature are sustainable, optimised and reliable due to the gradual evolution and natural selection. Both Biomimetics or Biomimicry can be considered emerging disciplines but not a new practice. Since begins of civilisation, the man has mimicked the nature in several aspects, such as architecture, tools and behaviour (Figure 4). However, despite its importance, Biomimicry is one between other design disciplines capable of providing sustainable solutions and reducing the environmental impact of resources usages, such as eco-design and eco-efficiency, bioclimatic and climate design, low energy design, eco-mimicry and others. Some of them can be more efficient in some aspects than others.

Bio-utilisation can be described as the care of the utilisation, manufacturing, process, life-cycle, chemical composes, of material and energy, whit the core aim reducing the environmental impact. Bioremediation can be described as the study and identification of problems, and the strategies to solve them through lower ecological impact possible. Bio-survey is the collect, stratification, interpretation, organisation and creation of a big database that supports all other disciplines in the searching and development process. Biomorphic can be understood as an art creation from observation and mimicry of nature. Bio-affiliation is the defence of the idea that the human feels better and is healthier when in contact and connected with nature. The connection between each discipline and its main characteristics in the Bio-inspired Design is shown in (Figure 5).

Figure 4 - Example of a Leonardo Da Vinci´s biomimetic/biomimicry flight machine. FONT: leonardo-da-vinci.net.

Figure 5 - Representation of bio-inspired design boundary and connections between each discipline and its main characteristics.

Figure 6 - Examples of solutions found from biomimicry/biomimetic. FONT: BiomimicryNYC

Bibliography:

Bernett, A. (2017). Biomimicry versus Biophilia: What’s the Difference? Retrieved April 15, 2018, from https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/blog/2017/02/biomimicry-versus-biophilia/

Biomimicry 3.8. (n.d.). What is Biomimicry?

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[1] Otto H. Schmitt (1913 - 1998), was an inventor, engineer and biophysicist. He was responsible for establishing the field of biomedical engineering, founding president of Biomedical Engineering Society and founding vice president of the Biophysical Society.

[2] Biomimicry 3.8 (https://biomimicry.net) is a bio-inspired consultancy offering biological intelligence consulting, professional training, and inspiration.

[3] Biomimicry Institute (https://biomimicry.org) is a non-profit organisation that has as aim to naturalise biomimicry in the culture through promotions and transfer of ideas, designs, and strategies to sustainable human systems design from the biology. Asknature (https://asknature.org) is an extension of the Biomimicry Institute, and is a website that seeks to support and inspire designers, engineers, architects, business strategists and other innovators with biological information relevant to their service or product design challenges.