Why Mimic Nature?
Nature inspired Shape, form, and geometry will insure:
•Utilizing Space
•Energy efficiency and clean energy
•Material efficiency and natural = nothing is wasted, everything is useful
•Building resilient and regenerative communities and cultures
•Sustainable and long-lasting
Level 1: Natural Forms (How it looks: 2D)
Forms, Geometry, Patterns & Numbers
Level 2: Natural Process (How it is made: 3D)
Structure, Construct, Materiality & Anatomy
Level 3: Natural Ecosystems (How it contributes:4D+)
Social Responsibility (care for the people), Performance, Indoor Environmental Quality
& Life-Cycle Analysis (circular economy and zero waste)
Level 1: Mimic the Shape, Form and Geometry
The first level of biomimicry is the mimicking of natural form. For instance, you may mimic
the hooks and barbules of an owl’s feather to create a fabric that opens anywhere along its
surface. Or you can imitate the frayed edges that grant the owl its silent flight.
Level 2: Mimic the Natural process
Deeper biomimicry adds a second level,
which is the mimicking of the natural process, or how a thing is made.
The owl feather self assembles at body temperature without toxins or high pressures, by way of nature’s chemistry. The movement of the feather lies under the field of physics and engineering.
Level 3: Natural Ecosystems
At the third level is the mimicking of natural ecosystems.
The owl feather is gracefully nested – it’s part of an owl that is part of a forest that is part of a biome that is part of a sustaining
biosphere.
If you make a bio-inspired fabric using green chemistry, but you have workers weaving it in
a sweatshop, loading in onto pollution-spewing trucks, and shipping it long distances, you have
missed the point.
Steps on how to apply Biomimetic Design:
1. Find a challenge or problem that you would like to find a sustainable solution for.
2. Choose which functions would your design requirements need in order to solve the problem:
Breakdown
Get, store or distribute resources
Capture, absorb, or filter resources
Distribute resources
Expel Resources
Store resources
Maintain community
Make
Move or stay put
Process information
Protect from Physical harm
3. Go to asknature.org and select the required functions
4. Find examples from organisms and living things that share these functions
5. mimic their shape, form, and geometry
6. mimic their natural process
7. mimic their natural ecosystems
