How can we draw inspiration from biology to design innovative and sustainable products and environments?
Each spring, the KDI Burst encourages participatory engagement with diverse creative perspectives through a workshop featuring guest designers and scholars. This year’s workshop focused on bio-inspired design and was co-facilitated by KDI Co-Principals Linsey Griffin (Associate Professor of Apparel Design and Co-Director of the Human Dimensioning Laboratory) and Carlye Lauff (Assistant Professor and Graduate Program Director, Product Design) with special guest Emilie Snell-Rood (Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences).
During this two-day, hands-on workshop, participants learned key biological concepts and explored diverse biological models before applying these lessons to collaborative redesigns of common objects.
Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature. In a society accustomed to dominating or ‘improving’ nature, this respectful imitation is a radically new approach, a revolution really. Unlike the Industrial Revolution, the Biomimicry Revolution introduces an era based not on what we can extract from nature, but on what we can learn from her.
The first day of the workshop, led by Emilie Snell-Rood, focused on the methodologies of biomimetic design. Biomimicry is the interdisciplinary cooperation of biology and design, technology, or other fields of innovation with the goal of solving practical problems through a function-based analysis of biological systems. Those systems are then abstracted into models, or design principles, which are transferred or applied to design solutions.
Biomimicry is one strategy within the broader umbrella of bioinspired design, a creative approach based on the observation of biological systems. Other bioinspired design strategies include biomorphism (design that resembles natural forms) and bioutilization (design that uses natural materials).
Biology can offer creative insights and ideas for solving our own problems and improving our designs, but it’s important to remember that natural isn’t inherently better. Designers still need to identify metrics to assess the relative performance of bio-inspired products.
Dr. Snell-Rood introduced workshop participants to both top-down and bottom-up biomimetic strategies. Bottom-up approaches start with an understanding of an organism and use function to bridge to design applications. A top-down approach starts with a problem analysis, then looks to nature for functions and mechanisms that can be used to improve the product.
The answers to our questions are everywhere; we just need to change the lens with which we see the world.
To put these ideas into practice, participants practiced making drawings of biological samples, and mind maps of issues and functions related to products of their choice. They then searched for biological analogies and researched and diagrammed biological traits to discover abstracted design principles.
On the second day of the workshop, participants focused on applying those design principles to redesigns of their selected objects.
The Projects
Ella Larsen, Michael Stoll, and Kusske Fellow Milo Tacheny designed a shoe with a regenerating sole to prolong the life of the product and reduce waste. Their design was based on patterns of fungal growth, nanocrystal biofoams, and bacterial-mediated healing, combining elements of biomimicry with bio-utilization.
Photo by Don Faulkner
Kusske Research Assistant Nandhitha Karunakaran, Boowon Kim, Mai Lor and Ijahara Mosissa designed shoe soles with a spongy inner layer inspired by the shock absorbing skull structures of the golden-fronted woodpecker.
Examining flat-pack furniture, Kusske Scholar Jacob Dommer-Koch and Sam Henderson redesigned furniture packing using biomimetic strategies and bio-utilization to reduce packaging material while maintaining strength and preventing crushing. Among other inspirations, they studied the structure of eggshells and looked to mycelium as a replacement for more traditional styrofoam packaging.
Photo by MTSOfan
Photo by Patrick Shannon
Photo by MTSOfan
Photo by Patrick Shannon
Hannah Berkhof, Nina Brown, Kusske Scholar Audra Sims, and Kyla Rust focused on improving the comfort and adjustability of a chair. Basing their design off the unique plate structure that protects armadillos while allowing them to roll into a tight ball and the scale structure that enables the serpentine movement of snakes, they designed a chair that can be rolled up for easy storage and that has an adjustable base allowing the user to make modifications ensuring a comfortable experience in a range of sitting positions.
Photo by Rhododendrites
Photo by Chloe Johnson
Photo by Rhododendrites
Photo by Chloe Johnson
Iggy Ebbeson, Kusske Research Assistant Tse-Hsun Kuo, Elliott Michaud, Kusske Research Assistant Vanessa Segura Duque, and Henry Vlietstra tackled the challenge of thermal regulation for windows. Inspired by the v-shaped scales that allow the green birdwing butterfly to regulate its temperature by trapping heat from light or reflecting light outward to reduce heat absorption, they designed two new systems of window blinds. They also designed a window with integrated fluid-filled veins similar to the vascular system in the freetail bat’s wings that helps it regulate body temperature. This system would allow the user to manipulate the temperature of the window while also generating a striking, lava lamp-like visual effect, via the movement of the colored fluids. The visual effect would have the added benefit of increasing the visibility of the window to birds, reducing crashes.
Photo by Nick Goodrum
Photo by Nick Goodrum
Kusske Administrative Assistant Torey Erin, Kusske Fellow Christine Zeni Flauta, Madelyn Jacobs, Hannah Martin, and Sam Reed tackled the problem of bird impacts with windows by considering light reflection and refraction on glass. They designed a system of films using nanostructures based on the anti-reflective eyes of nocturnal moths and structural colors of jewel beetle shells. The films would reduce the reflection of environmental elements on glass while refracting colors birds aren’t attracted to.
