"The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to
endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone."
Janine Benyus

Thursday, April 28, 2011

BIOMIMICRY

BIOMIMICRY: SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE INSPIRED BY NATURE

What Is Biomimicry?

"Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. The core idea is that Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, climate control, non-toxic chemistry, transportation, packaging, and a whole lot more." Biomimicry means looking for sustainable solutions by vigorously inquiring and learning from nature about form, structure, system, management, materiality and process. The idea is that animals, plants and microbes are consummate engineers. Throughout the evolution of the earth, nature has found what works, what is appropriate, and most importantly, what stands the test of time. "Biomimicry differs from other 'bio-approaches' by consulting organisms and ecosystems and applying the underlying design principles to our innovations. This approach introduces an entirely new realm for entrepreneurship that can contribute not only innovative designs and solutions to our problems but also to awakening people to the importance of conserving the biodiversity on Earth that has so much yet to teach us. "

SOURCE: http://www.asknature.org/article/view/what_is_biomimicry

3 LEVELS

  1. Organism
  2. Behaivour
  3. Ecosystem
5 DIMENSIONS
  1. Form
  2. Material
  3. Constitution
  4. Process
  5. Function


NATURE AS MODEL, MENTOR AND MEASURE:

Model: Biomimicry is a new science that studies Nature’s models and then emulates these forms, processes, systems, and strategies to solve human problems – sustainably.

Mentor: Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn from it.

Measure: Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, Nature has learned what works and what lasts.

SOURCE: http://www.asknature.org/article/view/what_is_biomimicry

SUMMARY:

WHY...
WHAT...
WHERE...
HOW...
LIKE...
  • Biomimicry: looking at nature as a model, measure and mentor.
  • Sustainability issues.
  • Global crisis: energy, oil.
  • Emulating - goes further than imitating - consciously emulating nature's genius means viewing and valuing the natural world differently.
  • Identify problems - seek advice from nature.
  • Challenge to biology.
  • 2 approaches: 1. design looking to biology, 2. biology influencing design.
  • Issues and constraints - look to biology for design solutions.

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