I very much enjoyed the post over at Bouncing Ideas about the Why, What, and How of science and design. I had so many comments to make, my brain fizzled out and made me go eat 10 lbs of turkey dinner. But, when reading Scelop’s comments I did begin to sketch out what he was saying about the difference between the ‘why’ in biology and ‘why’ in design. I’m hoping Carl or Alena might pick this up and help me frame out a diagram, but the end take away for me was that while it is important to realize there is a difference between the why’s I think inherently building the skill of ‘observation’ let’s you ask better questions in general, and specifically is needed when translating between the two world views.
Synthetic Biophilia
Vegetal City by Luc Schuiten
Biophilia is the idea that there is an instinctive bond or attraction between people and other living systems. What if we could create synthetic biophilia in our cities design that would make them as attractive and vibrant as an ecosystem? What would those cities look like? I came across Luc Schuiten’s vision of the future, and was immediately struck by his clear insights into biophilia. The cities of his work look appealing to me in a way that few cities today capture.
Eddies of Innovation: When Fast Meets Slow
These past few weeks have been a time of fast meets slow. The rapid world of consulting collides with the pace of life without power, or the pace of non-profit projects (planning a year in advance!). While being a Biologist at the Design Table is a rapidly moving, changing, and always morphing profession, this has been a particularly interesting time with many eddies forming worth spending time exploring.
Six Ways of Increasing Serendipity for Biomimicry Innovation
The story of Serendipity: Once there were three brothers who set out on a journey, they were looking for the magnificent city of Serendip. Nobody from their village knew where it was, but they were determined to find it. They traveled far from home and had many adventures along the way. However, one story in particular stands out for me as characteristic of their approach.
The brothers were walking along a path in the desert, the oldest brother noticed a pattern on the side of the road that indicated someone had spilled a great volume of water. The middle brother then noticed that there were camel tracks that seemed to limp or carry a heavy load. The brothers talked about this, but continued on. It was a bit later in the day when the youngest brother, having the best eyes, noticed the camel tracks began to wonder way off into the distance. They became concerned for the camel, and the possible rider – and decided to head off into the desert to follow.
Biomimicry Filters | What can I learn from sitting in my backyard?
This is not my backyard, but it is a backyard of someone who lives in Brazil. I’m not going to tell you what is in this picture, because that defeats the purpose. One of the hardest things about learning to observe is to not observe what you know. It is a trap we have been educated into, that we should know the answer… and the right answer! Horrible.
As a biologist and budding naturalist I spend my life learning so I can know! But as a biomimicry practice I need to forget all of that (for a few moments), and just observe. Sometimes I pretend I’m on a new planet that nobody has every spent any time considering – every species is new. I get to name them, and try to figure out what they do. This helps me see what I don’t know, and even see what I do know through a new filter. We have our students do something like this as part of learning to see the world, and communicate the world through a new lens, the results always amaze me.
Bryophyte Community Concept | Copyright CC BY-SA