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How nature can inspire design
Nature has always inspired mankind. Leonardo Da Vinci and the Wright brothers looked at birds in flight to inspire their flying devices.
In the same way, Swiss inventor George de Mestral created Velcro in 1948 by analyzing the burrs stuck to his pants and to his dog’s fur after a walk in the countryside.
Today, this science has a name: Biomimicry, a word coined by American researcher Janine Benyus, who published, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature in 1997.
“Biomimicry, or biomimetics, is all about looking to nature for inspiration and borrowing nature’s blueprints, its chemical recipes and ecosystem strategies,” says Benyus.
“Why reinvent the wheel when we have optimal solutions in nature that have benefited from 3.8 billion years of field testing and natural selection?”
This idea actually appeals more and more to companies that are trying to find solutions to problems nature has been dealing with since the dawn of life, such as minimizing energy use and manufacturing without toxins.
“The natural world is full of hints on how to manufacture in life-friendly ways,” says Benyus.
Nature is full of examples of adaptation, so “when we now talk about the extinction spasm, we’re talking about losing wisdom, ideas that we would not normally have thought of,” says Benyus.
We can no longer take this wealth for granted. That’s why the Biomimicry Institute has initiated a program called Innovation for Conservation, asking companies to donate a percentage of their proceeds to conserve the habitat of the species they took inspiration from.
Biomimicry proves once more that the loss of biodiversity is a lot more than an animal lover issue.
In the same way, Swiss inventor George de Mestral created Velcro in 1948 by analyzing the burrs stuck to his pants and to his dog’s fur after a walk in the countryside.
Today, this science has a name: Biomimicry, a word coined by American researcher Janine Benyus, who published, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature in 1997.
“Biomimicry, or biomimetics, is all about looking to nature for inspiration and borrowing nature’s blueprints, its chemical recipes and ecosystem strategies,” says Benyus.
“Why reinvent the wheel when we have optimal solutions in nature that have benefited from 3.8 billion years of field testing and natural selection?”
This idea actually appeals more and more to companies that are trying to find solutions to problems nature has been dealing with since the dawn of life, such as minimizing energy use and manufacturing without toxins.
“The natural world is full of hints on how to manufacture in life-friendly ways,” says Benyus.
Nature is full of examples of adaptation, so “when we now talk about the extinction spasm, we’re talking about losing wisdom, ideas that we would not normally have thought of,” says Benyus.
We can no longer take this wealth for granted. That’s why the Biomimicry Institute has initiated a program called Innovation for Conservation, asking companies to donate a percentage of their proceeds to conserve the habitat of the species they took inspiration from.
Biomimicry proves once more that the loss of biodiversity is a lot more than an animal lover issue.
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