Living Future is over and I am still recovering. The annual “unconference” is three days packed with speakers, events, catching up with friends and meeting new acquaintances. Admittedly, I’m not the best conference attendee. I have a hard time sitting still all day, especially in cold, windowless rooms. However, I usually get something out of the experience and this time what resonated most was Janine Benyus’ keynote on biomimicry.
Benyus is the author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, a seminal book that introduced the concept of looking to nature to inform design. Biomimicry.net describes the concept as “a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.” Think hospital surfaces that emulate shark skin, its rough texture reducing surface area and thereby inhibiting the growth of infection causing micro-organisms. Or a line of carpet tile that mimics the “organized chaos of the forest floor” so a replacement doesn’t stand out. Although we are just beginning to tap nature for its design expertise, compelling examples are numerous. Fortunately, the dedicated folks at The Biomimcry Institute are ambitious and tech savvy. They are creating an open source site to collect documentation on all the lessons nature has to offer.
AskNature.org is a gift. Let’s use it (and nature) wisely.
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