The nature based approach
Martina Poschiavin
Nature is an interesting inspiration when it comes to design, it can lead to different ideas from “just” the look of something or the functionality of it, because of this I chose to prioritized it to develop my final project, which comes from an intensive research on trees and the physics and adaptability behind them. The starting point of my entire project was biomimetics, to dive into this topic I have chosen a chapter of the book Bionics and Sustainable Design by F. L. Palombini and S. Senthilkannan Muthu (2022) that helped me to develop a clearer idea on what my project could become. As the topic of biomimetic is quite huge the second text that helped me finalize my idea was the chapter of the book Handbuch der Schadenskunde von Bäumen. Der Baumbruch in Mechanik und Rechtsprechung by C. Mattheck, H. Breloer (1994) which focuses on trees and the stability of them. The last text that I analyzed, since I think that it strictly relates to my project, is sustainability. I analyzed with a chapter on the throwaway culture from The handbook of design for sustainability by S. Walker. The texts were found thanks to an attentive research in the university’s library, then analyzed and summarized in this text.
Perricone, V., Langella, C., Santulli, C. (2022) “Sustainable Biomimetics: A Discussion on Differences in Scale, Complexity, and Organization Between the Natural and Artificial World”, in F. L. Palombini, S. Senthilkannan Muthu (2022) Bionics and Sustainable Design. Singa-
This section of the book Bionics and Sustainable Design (2022) explains the development of sustainable biomimetics and the research behind it. The key ideas on which this text focuses are sustainability, the usability of the biomimetics approach, the importance of the life cycle of a product and the characteristics of natural materials. There is great potential of inspiration for sustainable innovations that can be taken from nature, even if it is not always synonym of sustainability, it is often used as a method to increase the functionality of man-made products. Time and scale are important factors that need to be taken in consideration when designing a product or a building. This paper exposes the importance of the life cycle of a product and how much impact this type of process could have on the designs. Natural materials take longer to develop artificial material instead, are created in laboratories and ready to be used. The materials available in nature have different characteristic that would be interesting to have in an artificial material; this are: heterogeneity, organism that have a material and geometrical differentiation in their structural components; anisotropy, the uneven distribution and organization of materials; hierarchy, multilevel organizational organisms; modularity, organismal design in modules applicable in different scales; adaptability, vary of the organism proprieties to fit the environment; self-healing, multifunctionality, provide diverse important proprieties that are useful to the survival of the organism.
One of the deal breakers of this kind of materials is the biodegradability of them. Natural material are more likely to have a short life cycle, which in some cases, for example in architecture, it is not the optimal solution. Bio-based materials are the way for a more sustainable future, technologies can improve the adaptability of new materials in time and space, making them useful also for products and/
or structures that need to be durable in time. There are some features such as cyclicity, adaptability and self-organization that can be applied to bio-based materials resulting in a more resistance, durable and original material. This type of approach can lead to an increased performance, material innovation and productive technologies that can help to the reduction of environmental impact. Since nature is a great source of inspiration it must be protected and studied to continuously develop the technologies available and embrace it in an even more sustainable way.
Mattheck, C., Breloer, H. (1994) “La forma dell’albero come costruzione ideale”, C. Mattheck, H. Breloer (second edition) Handbuch der Schadenskunde von Bäumen. Der Baumbruch in Mechanik und Rechtsprechung. Freiburg in Breisgau: Rombach, 33-41
This technical chapter talks about the perfect form of the tree, focusing on the loads and stresses that are present in a tree and how it is able to adapt in different cases, such as a cut or wind. There are three different forces that are present in a tree, the most common and less worrying is the weight of it on the trunk which causes a compression (B). This state of balanced compression is altered when an outside factor, such as wind, this causes the tree to have on one side tension and on the other side compression depending on which side the wind is blowing (A). This tensions is also created by the tree when creating a branch, but this processes is controlled by it. The last force that can be found is the tension of growth (C), which develops tension on the outside and compression on the inside. This type of tension can be beneficial for the tree because it makes it more stable. A tree likes to have constant tension in itself, if it is able to keep that tension it becomes rigid. The tree does not stop growing, it can adapt itself to the situations and will grow to survive to the stresses (D) by developing a stronger part until the state of constant tension is restored.
The wind plays an important part to the development of a tree, since it will keep this state of constant tension when there is wind the tree will grow a strong trunk to survive. The tree will also develop a path to continuously keep this state (A), also following the shape of the foliage so that the load is fairly divided (B). If a trunk divides itself it will cate constant tension in the union point of them (C), same thing happens when the branches develop (D). Geotropism (the growth of the parts of plants in response to the force of gravity) is one of the ability of the tree to adapt to the situations. This could happen because of snow that deposits on the foliage, making the tree pend to a certain direction, the tree will
the deposit material to balance and keep an upright position (A). If the top of a tree dies, a branch will take its place by growing stronger so it can be on top (B). In these two examples the tree corrects its structure to reduce the external loads, the strategy of flexibility aims to reduce the material produced to adapt to constant stresses (C, D). Since the wind is blowing in the same direction for a long time, the tree will adapt the branches to create a spiral form so that they will
not break. The tree will also bend to the force of the wind, it will then develop the branches in the direction on the tree (D). The tree will always keep a balanced structure to avoid breaking, that is why the tree is considered to be the ideal construction.
Cooper, T. (2013) ‘Sustainability, Consumption and the Throwaway Culture’, in S. Walker The handbook of design for sustainability. London: Bloomsbury, 137-155.
This chapter focuses on overconsumption with an analyze of the consumer role and the impact of the throwaway culture. Overconsumption is a great problem that we should solve to create a more sustainable lifestyle. An average individual consumes each year a total of sixteen tons of recourses, if people continue to consume that much of renewable resources there would be a need of 2.75 planets to supply for our basic needs. This is because consumers will often think that more is better, so it will often strive to consume with the limitation of one’s income. To survive this overconsumption society, companies need to produce goods of low quality with a low market price for the mass market, this will lead to the lack of a products lifetimes. Many functional items are replaced earlier than needed because of a consumers need to upgrade to the newly items or ones of higher quality. This process is encouraged by companies because of the competitive pressure to continuously develop new products. Products life cycle and the speeds of growing resources play a really important part because of the waste generated, which remains high in most industrialized countries. To reduce waste there the principle of the cradle-to-cradle, also known as circular economy, that states that every input into the industry system should be recycled. Even if this sounds like the solution to the problem, it is not sufficient to be sustainable. Manufacturers are comfortable with reducing recourses and so are also many people that aims to change their lifestyles to reduce consumption.
The government and consumers have the same interest for energy efficiency, the public policy is focused on recycling but with a lack of interest in waste prevention. Viktor Papanek argues that the design community should take more interest in protecting the environment. In the 70s the term “eco-design” in all its forms was created, and a decade later products had a reduced environmental impact because of more awareness of sustainability. Economy’s sustainable course is deviated by the lack of evidence whether the product improvement alone is sufficient. There are also a series of questions whether the consumer would change the way of behaving by switching from the throwaway culture to buying a product with longer lifespan. The longevity of a product could be defined by a manufacturer confidence in a products reliability but that does not mean that it need to be discarded after that time. The throwaway culture still persists also because of the expensiveness of a longer-lasting product, since it is made with higher quality.
The first solution that will come in mind is that designers could design for longevity, but that is not so easy as it sounds. Designers need to take in consideration some important things such as: type of product, materials, components, maintenance, reparation, upgrade and reuse of a single product. Often designers feel like, if they design something for longevity, it will end up being a niche product. Adaptability has found to be a possible solution to the throwaway culture, even if that alone is not enough. The concept of constructing something based on ones needs and likelihood is seen as a positive factor. If this could be a solution, companies also need to make their part and change their business models to a more sustainable one and not based entirely on increasing sales. Consumers and designers often know the role they play in changing the throwaway culture. The inability and/or unwillingness of consumers to pay for longevity keeps this type of culture alive, meanwhile designers became more aware of sustainable solutions but often they are not able to put in into practice because of restrictive briefs. At this point the ones that could make an impact are governments. If they put on a front the benefits of sustainability and try to facilitate the process of transformation from the throwaway culture, they will be more effective than just creating a trend to follow. Companied will be asked to aim for sustainability instead of just sales. If governments are able to change this culture it would be beneficial for a more sustainable future.
By analyzing these texts I was able to find an idea in the field of trees and the way they adapt to the environment, which gave me the idea of creating something composable. The intention is to create some joints and make the user compose the furniture just by buying the different pieces of the length needed. My aim is to be able to modify furniture without the need to buy another one. The joints are simple and essential, reduced to the minimum to reach an interesting combination. Starting from biomimetics has helped me find out about some projects made following nature, in both aesthetical and functional. Studying different animals, plants and parts of the body, I then decided to focus on trees. With the text on the stability of trees I found out the reason why trees are the way they are, I started to look at them when I was walking outside and was fascinated by them even more. Researching on trees and their way of being I had the idea of creating joints to adapt furniture like trees adapt to the environment. The text on sustainability focused on the throwaway culture which I think that with this project can be avoided since it has endless modifications and can be used in every situations.
