Biomimicry - Janine Benyus

Some notes from a talk by Janine Benyus

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/janine_benyus_shares_nature_s_designs.html

• "How would nature solve this" should be asked before any design is started.
• Coral uses CO2 as a building block while we produce it as a toxic by product
• Trees and bones strengthen themselves along lines of stress
• We should be striving to minimize the kinds of materials we use and increase the level of design. Nature uses 5 polymers, humans use 350 polymers.
• Nano technology - nature knows how use it safely
• Energy efficiency through swarm technology
• One of Janine's goals is to create a data base called the Encyclopedia of Life which would be a one stop shop for designers who want to know how natures does things (ie make strong shells, waterproofing, illuminate, build with sunlight)
• http://www.asknature.org/
• "Biomimicry is taking an idea from nature and adapting it to suit our needs"
• Biomimicry is not just making a copy of nature
• To make an object humans use the HEAT, BEAT, TREAT method which produces many harmful by products and a lot of waste
• To make an object nature adds information to matter aka self assembly or more simply it grows objects.

12 BIG IDEAS

1. SELF ASSEMBLY
2. CO2 AS A FEEDSTOCK
3. SOLAR TRANSFORMATION
4. THE POWER OF SHAPE
5. COLOUR WITHOUT PIGMENT
6. QUENCHING THIRST
7. GREEN CHEMISTRY
8. TIMED DEGRADATION
9. HEALTH
10. SENSING AND RESPONDING
11. GROWING FERTILITY
12. LIFE CREATES CONDITIONS CONDUCIVE TO LIFE

REFELCTION

After watching this video i began to think just how much of what we don't know how to do has been figured out by nature? Clearly there will not be an exact solution to a design or a problem just sitting around somewhere in the bush or jungle but the ideas and processes are all there to be discovered. If this is the case then why is there not a greater focus on biology and nature in the design professions? We seem to think that we know everything already and that nature is just an obstacle or an after thought that landscape architects and gardeners have to deal with. Nature is treated as something that needs to be controlled and tamed when it should be seen as a teacher and a guide.