Part 2: What is Biomimicry?
Ok, But What Can I Do? Information and Inspiration towards Nature-Based Land Stewardship Perspectives and Practices
What is Biomimicry?
Biomimicry is a lens through which to view the world. When we (re)connect with nature, it isn’t just about the science of the outdoors, but also about the deep connection of humans as part of nature, in this larger whole.
Biomimicry is the creative work to follow the time-tested patterns of nature, to weave together designs that can both improve function and sustainability.
Biomimicry has sustainability built into it, by seeing nature as a measure, designers engage with the ways that design solutions can respect and regenerate nature -- nature doesn’t make waste, and recycles everything -- it is a closed-loop system. As Jenine Benyus said in her book, Biomimicry, “Nature creates conditions conducive to life.” If we can follow this general rule, we can find sustainability and care for the earth built into our designs.
Biomimicry is also a design methodology that includes exploring the context and operating conditions of a problem and identifying the function for which to solve it. Like plugging in a math equation, once the function(s) are identified, the many organisms that have to meet that function are like the variables. The strategies used to meet the functions provide a solution template pattern of sorts. We abstract the design principles and then innovate by applying those abstracted design principles to our initial problem - while also measuring our design against nature’s best practices.
Birds-Eye-View to Avoid Collisions
In nature, it is important to be resource efficient and conserve energy. Spiders require a lot of energy to produce each spider web. If birds were unable to see these webs, they would fly right through them, ruining the spider’s opportunity to catch their next meal. To avoid this drastic energy risk, spiders evolved UV-reflective web fibers. Birds can see these UV-reflective webs and easily avoid a web collision.
Using the knowledge that birds can see and avoid UV-reflective fibers, and humans can barely perceive them, biomimicry designers added synthetic UV-reflective coating onto window panes to decrease bird collisions.
Whale Power for Aerodynamics
Nature often uses shape to provide adaptation. Humpback Whales have bumps on the front edge of their flippers which gives them incredible turning power and accuracy for such a large body.
By using the form on the front of the Humpback Whale flippers as a model, Frank Fish, a biomimicry designer, made blades for fans and wind turbines more powerful and efficient.
Whale Power page sketch
(Image Source: Hand Drawn by Anne LaForti)
Challenge-to-Design
When biomimics look at challenges in the world, start by identifying the functional need, then find organisms that have a strategy to meet that need.
Termite Architects for Thermoregulation
An architect in Zimbabwe needed a way to keep a building at a steady, comfortable temperature, while the outside temperature fluctuated greatly between cold and hot due to the local desert conditions.
He found that termites that live in these fluctuating temperatures also must keep their fungal food at a consistent temperature -- too warm and their food goes bad, too cold and their food won’t grow.
Termites build large mounds with underground tunnels that leverage heat exchange and airflow to moderate the temperature.
The biomimicry architect used the same idea of heat exchange and airflow to design an HVAC system that used less than 20% of the energy compared to a standard building its size.
Water Collection in the Desert
When looking for a way to collect drinking water in the desert, biomimicry designers found the Darkling Beetle family.
These beetles walk up the dunes at just the right time to catch the fog. The nano-texture on the beetle’s back is a combination of bumps and troughs which allows the fog to condensate on its back. They put up their tail end in the air, and the collected water runs down their back and into their mouths.
Using a similar texture allows designers to create water collection devices that can collect the fog as water for humans to drink.
Swarm Logic for HVAC System Coordination
After a terrible blackout stunned the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada in 2003, a team of innovators decided to find a way to drastically decrease the power required for small commercial HVAC systems to keep building inhabitants comfortable.
They found that honeybees communicate and optimize swarm behavior in a decentralized way. Each bee was like a sensor, collecting data and acting on simple rules which were followed by all the bees in the hive.
The team had found a better way to manage an ecosystem in dynamic non-equilibrium and designed machine-learning software that could optimize HVAC systems, dropping energy consumption by 10-20%, along with an equal decrease in energy costs.
This is part 2 of the manuscript I drafted for the final project of my Biomimicry master’s degree. I feel it could help you to understand the impact that each of us can have on our hyper-local ecosystems as we step toward stewardship practices that heal the soil.
— Anne LaForti —
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