Biomimicry: An essential for every designer

Authors: Sakshi Gaggar & Nawara Shanoon

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Being a student at a design school, it’s very unlikely for one to not have stumbled upon the terminologies such as Sustainability, Circular Design, Bio-inspired products, Natural Materials, Eco-conscious Design etc. These have become the buzzwords, and designers across the globe are taking a greener approach towards problem solving. As inquisitive designers, Nawara Shanoon and I were also on this bandwagon to learn and discover similar approaches to design sustainable solutions.

As soon as we got to know that a course in Biomimicry is being offered to us at college, we delved into researching more about it and the various applications it has. It was interesting to know how a swarm of locusts could be studied to avoid traffic collisions or how the structure of peacock feathers in the absence of any colouring pigment, could reflect light which enables us to see those colours or how the Rhino horn was taken as an inspiration to build self-repairing concrete. It struck us that there were so many solutions right in front of our eyes, yet we had never pondered over them. Could we engage our curious minds in order to seek answers from nature? 

The thought, “Learning from nature and not just about Nature” was instilled within us during the 2-week course as we understood the Biomimicry Design Spiral process in detail, and applied the framework to our design project. We realised the potential this field holds and why it should be an endeavour for every designer to engage with biomimicry.

1. Life- Centric over Human- Centric

Over the course of time, our connection with nature has reduced significantly. The COVID crisis has made most leaders realize the need to emphasize on safe harbouring of natural life forms rather than fixating the growth of a country on economic and industrial grounds. We need to change the human impact on earth from being degenerative to regenerative. Janine Benyus put this golden rule for regenerative cultures: “Life creates conditions conducive to life.” This is the central lesson in Biomimicry.

As designers, we are often told to make our solutions human-centric. In this process, the purpose gets commercialized and tends to lose its alignment with natural processes and systems. In designing for the ‘P for people’, we overlook the ‘P for Planet’. Recently, a joint venture was formed between scientists based in Switzerland, India and Italy that focused on developing a water repellent biodegradable material inspired by the hydrophobic properties of a lotus leaf. Keeping human centricity as one of the driving aspects, the design was capable of solving a number of problems in the fields of healthcare, self-cleaning textiles, oil spill management, corrosion resistance, sensor manufacturing, robotics and 3D printing. Moreover, the material was composed of a cellulose derivative, which is biodegradable, and helped in catering to the well-being of the ecosystem. This is what life-centricity is all about.

2. Being Locally Attuned

Charles Darwin in his theory of Evolution emphasizes on a concept of Natural Selection that individuals with heritable traits better suited to the environment will survive. Designs by nature are locally attuned. For instance, an Arctic Fox changes the color and thickness of its coat with the seasons- white and thick in snowy winter months while tan and thin for summer in the tundra. The fox’s coat is attuned and responsive to its environment. The white fur during the winter helps the fox in hunting prey by adding a camouflage element. The foxes inhabiting slightly hot areas and tropical regions are prone to having a grey fur which helps them adapt to their respective landscape.

When we are designing for a context, it’s important to understand that every place has a different set of requirements and what has survived there has adapted to it. Therefore, our designs will have to take inspiration from how the ecosystem is interacting with its sub-elements including local materials, processes, and organisms; thus, enabling us to produce resilient and locally sustainable designs. Deriving impetus from the way a species adapts to its ecosystem, designing should be harnessed to emulate the species in that ecosystem and align with the local ethos.

3. A Spectrum of Opportunities

There is a wrong notion that Biomimicry lead design solutions are product orientated. Biomimicry is practiced at three different levels- Forms, Process and System.

At the Form level, parts of organisms or an organism as a whole is analyzed with regards to how its functions and solutions are drawn by mimicking either the whole or the part. The kingfisher’s beak inspired Shinkansen bullet train in Japan is a popular example.

Process or Behaviour level biomimicry revolves around understanding how the organism behaves in relation to its external environment so that it fits in without much resistance. An example is of Swarm Logic®, an IoT-enabled energy efficient technology inspired by the decentralized decision making behaviour of bees that integrates with the building controls to dramatically and instantly reduce the electric costs.

Systems level biomimicry emphasizes on a bigger picture where one has to study the organism, its behaviour, its influence on its ecosystem and notice the interaction among the various elements. John Todd Ecological Design, Inc. has created an Eco-Machine wastewater treatment by mimicking the wetland ecosystem.

It is important for a person to understand what aspect of the ‘Bio’ are they ‘Mimicking’. Rather than imitating what exactly is ‘visible’ in nature, what makes it ‘visible’ needs to be understood and its essence needs to be generated. Innovation lies at the heart of Biomimicry and there can be no limits to one’s imagination when such ever evolving natural models are present at our disposal. 

4. “Waste, what’s that?” asked Nature

Nature produces no waste. One organism’s end product proves to be a raw material for another. Macro organisms during their time on earth consume nutrients for survival. However after their death, a certain set of microbes including bacteria and fungi break down their dead bodies into smaller constituents, converting it into a different chemical form for further utilization by the ecosystem in the form of carbon dioxide and nitrogen; hence, demonstrating zero wastage.

Circular economy takes its inspiration from this zero waste model. There are a number of industries that are thriving on this concept and invariably contributing towards sustainability. A good example is a company called InterfaceFLOR. They redesigned their process and product offering to reduce wastage and minimize cost. Instead of producing one piece of carpet which has to be discarded once damaged, they came up with a new product range called i2 modular carpets. These are carpet tiles with non-directional random patterns on them, inspired by forest floors. So if any tile gets damaged, it can be replaced by another tile easily instead of discarding the whole carpet.

5. Reconnect with Nature

Amidst the coursework, the class was once taken on a day excursion to the Lalbagh botanical garden to reconnect with nature. Away from our screens, we got a first-hand experience to consciously observe, listen and touch the natural elements around. To study or learn Biomimicry, one needs to incorporate the three facets of it- emulate, ethos and reconnect. The latter is what makes it different from its counterparts. Often the ecosystem and its organisms are observed and appreciated for its visual appearances, but reconnect sessions usually encourage us to look beyond what meets the eye. We were able to gaze at the strategies devised by life forms for their survival and well-being from a functional perspective. This helped us in reinstating our faith in the fact that nature is the best problem solver.  

Just the way George De Mestral was inspired by the burrs leading to the discovery of Velcro during his walk in the woods with his dog, who knows what nature’s secret could one chance upon while on a trail.

As it is rightly said “the twentieth century was the century of physics and the twenty-first century will be the century of biology”, in that context Biomimicry, being an interdisciplinary field provides a great realm for designers to collaborate with biologists, naturalists and environmentalists too. It's time to look up to Nature and make it our ‘model, measure and mentor’ as we conceptualize designs for the now and future.