Biowerks Course Book - California College of the Arts

BIOWERKS COURSE BOOK INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INVESTIGATIVE STUDIO FALL 2014 TOM MCKEAG Adjunct Professor PATIMA P. PATARAMEKIN Teaching Assistant

BIOWERKS COURSEBOOK

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CLASS INFORMATION 05 SEPTEMBER - 12 DECEMBER 2014 FRIDAY 0900 - 1500 CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS

SF Campus GRADUATE CENTER COMPLEX BUILDING 1

Room GC1 TOM MCKEAG tmckeag@cca.edu PATIMA P. PATARAMEKIN ppataramekin@cca.edu SCHOOL OF FISH // ASKNATURE.COM

FALL 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE COURSE .......................... 5 RESOURCES + HOUSEKEEPING ........ 6 ASSIGNMENTS + FIELD TRIPS ........... 8 COURSE INTRODUCTION .................. 11 FORM “Little Things Multiply Up” ....... 20 STRUCTURE “Solving Contradictions” ..... 28 ENERGY “Surfing for Free” ..................... 38 INFORMATION “Aren’t You Smart!” ....... 46 PROCESS “Get Yourselves Organized” ...... 50 SYSTEM “Relationships Matter” .............. 54 REFERENCES ..................................... 60

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SAULINSIGHT.BLOGSPOT.COM 4

ABOUT THE COURSE Biowerks is a hands-on biomimetic design

studio in which students will be given the opportunity to explore several biological themes in building a capacity to perform bio-inspired design (BID). The course will include field trips to Duxbury Reef in Bolinas, UC Berkeley and the 3D Systems offices in San Francisco.

The short problem sets comprising the coursework will be based on themes such as self-organization, scale hierarchy, modular construction, environmental stimuli, and optimization. A typical problem set will include an introduction to a natural form, process or system, an explanation of design and biological concepts, and a design exercise that demonstrates or employs a BID principle in a tangible product or service.

In addition to the short exercises, students will be expected to produce and present two finished designs, one at midterm and one at the end of the semester. At least one exercise will involve additive manufacturing with guidance from the staff at 3D Systems. All digital modeling experience levels (including no experience) will be accommodated for this exercise.

By the end of the course students should be able to conduct a basic biological literature search, use abstract biological concepts within the framework of traditional industrial design methodology, and be able to employ a bio-inspired design process as an additional technique for innovation in their work.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR Tom McKeag has been teaching bio-

inspired design since 2006, and is the editor of Zygote Quarterly magazine (http://zqjournal.org), the regular columnist for the Biomimicry Column at http://greenbiz.com, and the founder and president of BioDreamMachine, a K12 education California public benefit corporation. He was a senior Fulbright Nehru scholar, 2013-2014, posted at the Center for Product Design and Manufacturing at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, where he taught graduate engineering students.

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RESOURCES MCKEAG BLOG www.greenbiz.com ZYGOTE QUARTERLY EZINE www.zqjournal.org BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE www.biomimicryinstitute.org ASK NATURE www.asknature.org ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE www.eol.org

RESOURCES + HOUSEKEEPING ATTENDANCE This class meets for six hours once a week and spans lunchtime. In the interest of order and efficiency we ask that you not bring food into this work area except during the scheduled lunch break, and that you clean up all trash that you generate. Since we will run short group exercises with resultant presentations, we require that you attend the full studio session. If you do arrive late for a session, we reserve the right to dismiss you until the next class.

We will be following the college-wide policy on attendance and tardiness, and unexcused absences and chronic tardiness could affect your grade.

COURSE HANDBOOK This studio course uses a required

handbook in which there are brief explanations of concepts and principles and recommended resources. Please bring the handbook to every class.

RECOMMENDED READING “The Gecko’s Foot” by Peter Forbes, ISBN -13: 978-0-393-06223-6 “Bullet-proof Feathers: How Science Uses Nature’s Secrets to Design Cutting-Edge Technology” by Allen, Robert ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL, ISBN-13: 978-0-226-01470-8 “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired” by Nature, Benyus, Janine, Harper Collins, New York, ISBN 0-06-053322-6

BUTTERFLY SCALES // SCIENCEBUZZ.ORG 4

ASSIGNMENTS There are five short studio/home assignments and two stages of the final project in this course due at mid and end of term. Assignments are due at 9 AM the day of class: they are to be “turned in� by uploading to your folder on Google Drive (doc, pdf, or image files). You will also be required to have properly formatted hard copies ready to pin up in class. Specs for assignments may be referenced on the Drive in the document labeled, Assignment Specs.

Assignments not uploaded, in the right format, or ready to be pinned by that time will not receive full credit. Students are also expected to bring in and present their projects in class at 9 AM on the due date unless specified otherwise.

Students will be briefed on the final project requirements and will be required to submit a final project proposal, and upload it to the Drive and bring to class for desk crit. The project milestone schedule will be determined depending on the project theme. You can expect to submit the following: preliminary draft for a desk crit, final draft, and a formal presentation in front of invited guests.

Grades will be issued for each assignment based on product and presentation. Short assignments will count for 40%, final project for 55%, and class participation for 5% of the final grade. Extra credit work will be accepted if approved by instructor.

Please reference the Assignment Deadlines document on Google Drive.

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FIELD TRIPS + ACTIVITIES We will take four field trips: UC Berkeley, The California Academy of Sciences (research experience), Agate State Beach in Bolinas (field experience), and 3D Systems in San Francisco (design experience). Logistical details will be provided in a separate document.

Students are required to be at the field trip sites at the designated times, and provide their own transportation to/from (however, we will organize rideshares). Students will also be responsible for any parking or entrance fees at the field trip sites. There may be a fee for parking at Berkeley, and an entrance fee at the Academy of Sciences. Agate State Beach is in Marin County and parking is free.

SCIENTISTS MIMIC FIREFLIES TO MAKE BRIGHTER LEDS // PHYS.ORG 9

SPIDER WEB // // WWW.CORVALLISADVOCATE.COM SPIDERWEBS WWW.CORVALLISADVOCATE.COM 10

COURSE INTRODUCTION “An approach to human invention in which principles governing biological forms, processes and systems are studied and translated to the methods and materials of technology and employed to solve functional problems.� - T. McKeag In our introductory remarks we mentioned that it is important to understand where you are in the informational landscape when searching for design inspiration from Nature.

Approaches to bio-inspired problem solving follow, typically, one of two main directions: problem (or application) to inspiration (or mentor), or inspiration to problem. For example, you may want to develop a superior grip on a tire (problem) and then research organisms that adhere to surfaces well (inspiration), or you may discover an interesting inspiration, like the Limpet, a marine invertebrate, and its ability to stick to surfaces and then design an application in a tire.

Two organizing frameworks for initial way-finding have been developed for this course, and they will be used with tools from other sources. They are shown on the next two pages.

WHAT IS LIFE? Margulis, Lynn and

Sagan, Dorion, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, ISBN 0-520-22021-8

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COURSE INTRODUCTION

THE BIODESIGN CUBE is a framework for

USE THE CUBE FOR: FRAMING PROBLEM DIVERGENT THINKING CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

categorizing the phenomena, key parameters, and application venues of your problem-solving search.

It can be useful in answering the questions “what are you looking at in your problem space?”, “ What are its key characteristics or parameters?” and “ in what venue are you going to apply your solution?”

The second is the Breadth and Depth Matrix, a tool for targeting possible sources for natural inspiration. The two dimensions in the matrix describe the range of organisms that have been catalogued in a standard taxonomy against the scales in which is it is possible to examine an organism.

Like coordinates on a map, Breadth (taxonomy) and Depth (scale) are critical to knowing where you are looking. The taxonomy used is a three domain, five kingdom type. The scales used are limited to atom, molecule, cell, tissue, organ, organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere.

Both of these frameworks can be used in conjunction with other ideation tools, for example the Biomimicry Taxonomy, a function-based organizer, and the Design Spiral, a design process guide, developed by the Biomimicry Institute.

BIO-DESIGN CUBE, COPYRIGHT BIODREAM MACHINE

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COURSE INTRODUCTION

CHOICE OF SOLUTIONS Nature is different from

technology in several ways. These two graphs show the difference between the two domains by the way in which certain strategies are typically used at different scales. Note that in the graph on the top the large amount of energy and substance used by technology to solve a problem, while on the bottom, information and structure are used more frequently. This difference has meaning to deign, particularly green design, as substituting information and structure for energy and material saves precious resources.

TECHNOLOGY VERSUS NATURE TECHNOLOGY

NATURE

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COURSE INTRODUCTION

BREADTH AND DEPTH MATRIX BREADTH DOMAIN KINGDOM PHYLUM CLASS ORDER FAMILY GENUS SPECIES ATOM MOLECULE CELL DEPTH

TISSUE ORGAN ORGANISM POPULATION COMMUNITY ECOSYSTEM BIOSPHERE

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COURSE INTRODUCTION

TREE OF LIFE 2008 LEONARD EISENBERG 15

BIOWERKS COURSEBOOK

KEYING OUT YOUR FAMILY PET DOMAIN KINGDOM CLASS ORDER FAMILY GENUS SPECIES

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Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis Canis familiaris

COURSE INTRODUCTION

1930S VETERINARY COLOUR PRINT “ THE DOG. MUSCULAR SYSTEM, INTERNAL

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COURSE INTRODUCTION

Phylogenetic trees illustrate the common origins of organisms and are typically structured according to an established taxonomic system.

Indeed, cladistics, the branch of science concerned with sorting out the great diversity of life, has been essential to establishing the taxonomic systems.

Evolutionary Development, or Evo-Devo, can be a rich source of insights about successful forms and behaviors in the living world.

WEB REFERENCES TREE OF LIFE PROJECT www.tolweb.org/tree UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION www.evolution.berkeley.edu ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE www.eol.org BIOMIMICRY FUNCTIONAL DATABASE www.asknature.org

Highly similar forms, developed from distinct gene pools, are examples of convergence.

Studying convergence is one way to find functional strategies that have been proven to work over a range of environments and time.

COURSE INTRODUCTION

DOING THE SCALES DEPTH ATOM

MOLECULE

CELL

TISSUE

ORGAN

ORGANISM

POPULATION

COMMUNITY

ECOSYSTEM

BIOSPHERE

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FORM “Little Things Multiply Up” REFERENCES BIOLOGY 7th edition, Campbell and Reece, Benjamin/

Cummings Publishing Co., Inc., Menlo Park, CA. ISBN 0-8053-7476-0 EXPLORING THE WAY LIFE WORKS

Hoagland, Mahlon and Dodson, Bert, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury MA. ISBN 0-7637-1688-X

THE ROOF OF THE PALAZZETTO DELLO SPORT (PIER LUIGI NERVI, 1958) FROM ARCHISKETCHES BLOG 20

FORM // “LITTLE THINGS MULTIPLY UP”

DATE

Nature tends to build things in a modular way, using basic units that are assembled in more and more complex ways.

Protein molecules are a good example. Only twenty amino acids are used in various combinations to construct over 70,000 different types of proteins within your body. There are many advantages to modular construction in nature: easier repair, more reliable fail-safes, and less waste, among others.

This increasingly complex assemblage occurs over a range of scales. A combination of amino acids will form chains, these chains will form either helices or pleated sheets, and, in turn, these will be folded and joined together to make a complex protein.

These structures cannot be explained by an examination of their individual parts (a form of investigation called reductionism).

Your mind, for example, cannot be explained by a dissection of brain cells, but only by understanding the organization of those cells and the many interactions between them.

That is why we say “little things multiply up”.

In biology, this phenomenon of completely new structures and properties arising from an array of smaller parts is called “emergence”.

INSPIRING ORGANISM – LILY PADS 21

MODULE 1

MOLECULAR LEVEL Hemoglobin,

formed from amino acids, first formed in chains, then bonding to each other in helices and pleats, and then coiled into a complex shape exhibits emergent form from modularity.

TISSUE LEVEL Bone exhibits a

hierarchy of scale in structural resistance to cracking. The problem is solved across several scales, and modular construction allows units to be combined into increasingly complex arrays that have characteristics and capabilities beyond the individual parts.

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FORM // “LITTLE THINGS MULTIPLY UP”

CRACK RESISTANCE At Several Scales in Bone

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MODULE 1

THE SCALE OF THINGS The Nano & Micro World NATURAL

MANMADE

OREGON is home to the largest known living organism in the world. In Malheur County, on

the eastern edge of the state, a network of mycelium stretches underground for 2,384 acres, an area as big as 1,665 football fields or 4 square miles. Scientific American (October 4, 2007) reports that this sprawling organism is somewhere between 2,400 and 8,650 years old.

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STRUCTURE “Solving Contradictions” REFERENCES PLANT BIOMECHANICS An Engineering Approach

to Plant Form and Function, Niklas,, Karl J., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ISBN 9780226586311 STRUCTURAL BIOMATERIALS Vincent, Julian,

Prinecton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, ISBN 0-691-08558-7 CATS’ PAWS AND CATAPULTS

Vogel, Steven, W. W. Norton and Co., New York, 1998.

ISBN 0-393-04641-9 STRUCTURE Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down

Gordon, G.E., Da Capo Press, New York, 1981 (reprint of Penguin Press 1978 original), ISBN 0-306-80151-5

GECKO TOE SHOWING LAMELLAE OR FRINGES // QUADERNS.COAC.NET 28

STRUCTURE // “SOLVING CONTRADICTIONS”

DATE

SUMMARY SOLVING CONTRADICTIONS Problem solving, in technology and in nature, often involves reconciling contradictions. For example, a protective surface might have to be hard to avoid penetration as well as flexible to allow movement. The articulation on a crab’s leg is one example of how this contradiction has been solved in the world of Arthropods.

HIERARCHY OF SCALES In Module 1, we talked about modularity and emergence. Emergence is a phenomenon that occurs across scales. Typically, we will discuss the scales of space from the atom to the biosphere, but scale also applies to other parameters like time. Emergence can be seen within all these scales. Another strategy that can be seen as a result of this modularity is problemsolving through a hierarchy of scales. A simple example is the way the protein collagen forms into a tendon, from the nanometer scale to the micrometer. Like wires in a steel cable, the collagen fibrils are bundled to make a strong, but resilient material.

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STRUCTURE // “SOLVING CONTRADICTIONS”

EXAMPLE ONE Scale: Collagen Protein Molecules (and others) assemble a tendon

SEM IMAGE OF COLLAGEN FIBRIL

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MACRO

EXAMPLE TWO Solving Contradictions

Across Scales: How Geckos Stick to Walls, clockwise from top left, macro, micro and nano views of toe that sticks by Van der Waals forces.

HOW DO I STICK AND YET MOVE WHEN I WANT? Van der Waals forces are those of molecular attraction, which means that the Gecko’s toes have a huge surface area right down to this nano scale. You can see that the feet have fringed toes (lamellae) and these fringes have hairs (setae), and these hairs have split ends, and these split ends all have tiny pads (spatulae). We can’t stick to walls because we can’t get close enough (but the Gecko can).

MICRO

This phenomenon was discovered by Kellar Autumn, now at Lewis and Clark College, while working at the Integrative Biology Dept. of UC Berkeley. Robert Full, Ron Fearing and others continue to investigate the applicability of this strategy and hope to develop a “gecko tape”.

Think of it as a one-sided Velcro that can stick to just about anything and be removed at will and used again and again. The trick? It’s all in the angle that the Gecko plants his toe and peels it off again.

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MODULE TWO

STICKYBOT from Stanford University

is a simplified mechanical version of the gecko. Note in the graph image how different mechanisms are applied at different scales to solve the problem of adhesion.

WEB REFERENCES AUTUMN LAB/LEWIS + CLARK COLLEGE www.geckolab.lclark.edu CIBER/UC BERKELEY www.ciber.berkeley.edu WIRED MAGAZINE www.wired.com/2009/10/animal-inspire-robotic-designs/

STRUCTURE // “SOLVING CONTRADICTIONS�

LESSONS FROM AN EGG: SOLVING CONTRADICTIONS IN A HIERARCHY OF SCALES The

eggshell, as we saw in the first lecture, is a study in solving contradictions: keep some things out, but let others in; keep some things in, but let others out; move, but then stay put; keep together, but then break apart. The eggshell accomplishes this using solutions across scales.

For example, in resisting being broken, the macro scale dome shape distributes forces down the side of the egg. At a micro-scale, the so-called palisade structure of the shell resists compressive forces like columns in a building.

At the molecular scale, the composite of pliable and durable proteins and hard calcium carbonate combine to make a substance much tougher than its individual parts.

EGGSHELL PALISADE

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ENERGY “Surfing for Free” REFERENCES INTO THE COOL Energy Flow, Thermodynamics and

Life, Schneider, Eric D. and Sagan, Dorion, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London, ISBN 0-226-73936-8 DESIGN IN NATURE How the Constructal Law

Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization, Bejan, Adrin and Zane, J. Peder, Random House, New York, ISBN 978-0385534611 FLOW Nature’s Patterns A Tapestry in Three Parts

Ball, Philip, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, ISBN 978-0199604876

DANDELIONS LEVERAGE FREE ENERGY // WWW.GREENBIZ.COM 38

ENERGY // “SURFING FOR FREE�

DATE

In maintaining homeostasis, many organisms have evolved to take advantage of favorable thermodynamic pathways that exist in our physical world. They do this by transforming energy to maintain optimum internal conditions despite a widely changing external environment (metabolic success).

All organisms use the energy flow that ultimately comes from the sun as it passes through the biosphere and out into space.

This energy flow is governed by the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics. First, energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but can be transformed. Second, this energy will always tend to dissipate or move toward entropy, and this trend is irreversible.

Because energy is flowing naturally toward dissipation, a gradient is established in space and time between the higher concentration and the lower. This gradient could involve various conditions: heat, pressure, or chemical concentration, for example.

Surfing for Free happens when organisms take advantage of these gradients in order to save energy or material. Indeed, much of Life depends on maintaining this dynamic disequilibrium in order to do work, and therefore, survive.

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MODULE THREE

EXAMPLE ONE This strategy occurs at

many scales and a good example is the common gull, which takes advantage of convective air currents in order to fly, rides water currents and eddies, and takes advantage of vertical upwellings to catch fish.

ORGAN SCALE SOARING

ORGAN AND TISSUE SCALE COUNTERCURRENT HEAT EXCHANGE

DUXBURY REEF, BOLINAS, CALIFORNIA // PHOTOGRAPHYBYJAY.COM

ENERGY // “SURFING FOR FREE”

EXAMPLE TWO The gull also possesses, at the organ scale, an efficient answer to heat loss while wading in cold water. Feathers insulate most of the bird’s body by trapping a layer of warm air. These feathers are not effective, however, if totally immersed in water, so the gull’s legs and feet are bare.

Heat loss is mitigated by a countercurrent heat exchange system. Warm oxygenated blood traveling in arteries preheats the oxygen depleted blood traveling back to the heart and lungs via the veins.

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MODULE THREE

EXAMPLE THREE A third example

of this phenomenon, at the organelle and molecular scale, happens in the mitochondria of the bird’s cells. It is here where cellular respiration, the conversion of food into energy, takes place.

In part of the process, a small turbine-like molecular mechanism, the ATP Synthase, spins in place within a membrane. It is powered by the flow of hydrogen ions, moving from higher concentrations outside the membrane, through the ATP Synthase, to within the membrane.

ORGANELLE AND MOLECULAR SCALE: ATP PRODUCTION IN THE MITOCHONDRIA OF A CELL

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ENERGY // “SURFING FOR FREE”

1. THE BIG PICTURE All of our energy

(virtually) flows from the sun through the open system that is the earth and out into the cold of space.

2. Along the way organisms transform this energy…

3. They do this in order to maintain stable and optimum internal conditions despite a changeable environment.

REMEMBER These organisms are only

borrowing this energy until, irrevocably, they also must follow the Second Law of Thermodynamics and break down and head toward entropy.

SURFING FOR FREE - Happens at all scales in many organisms - Saves evergy and sometimes material - Is an evolutionary advantage

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INFORMATION “Aren’t You Smart” REFERENCES EXPLORING THE WAY LIFE WORKS

Hoagland, Mahlon and Dodson, Bert, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury MA. ISBN 0-7637-1688-X

VENUS FLYTRAP SEA ANEMONE // NOAA OCEAN EXPLORER, OCEANPORTAL.TUMBLR.COM

INFORMATION // “AREN’T YOU SMART”

DATE

Having the right information at the right time can save material and energy, resources that organisms must conserve in order to survive, compete and succeed (pass on their DNA to the next generation). Here are three information themes found in nature.

RECIPES, NOT BLUEPRINTS Life is organized by information, and DNA is the key to the creation and transmission of this information. DNA can be best likened to a recipe, rather than a blueprint. It provides instructions for the making of molecules (proteins) that do the work of building and maintaining the cells that comprise a complex organism like the wildebeest.

I.YTIMG.COM/VI/UJE4K-X8VIK/MAXRESDEFAULT.JPG// 47

MODULE FOUR

AREN’T YOU SMART! We often

distinguish living things as being responsive and adaptive to their environment in order to maintain a steady internal state (homeostasis).

Information is what makes these characteristics possible, and can often be modeled as a feedback loop. Feedback loops comprise a program that is desired (control center), sensors that detect whether that program is being pursued (receptors), and the means to correct any deviation from the program (effectors).

JUST-IN-TIME INFORMATION Critical to the operation of living things at all scales is the timing of information receiving and transmission within the feedback loops associated with homeostasis. Just-in-time information describes circumstances in which this timing is the key factor. An example in nature is when you get goose bumps on your skin in reaction to cold.

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PROCESS “Get Yourselves Organized” REFERENCES THE SUPERORGANISM The Beauty, Elegance and Strangeness of Insect Societies, Holldobler, Bert and Wilson,

E.O., W.W. Norton and Co., New York.

ISBN 978-0-393-06704-0

PROCESS // “GET YOURSELVES ORGANIZED”

DATE

Processes happen at all scales in nature and are of all kinds: chemical, mechanical, electrical, thermodynamic. It is the dynamism of these events and sequences of events that creates the activity that we see as “life”. Here are two important themes in nature.

GET YOURSELVES ORGANIZED Information, as it is contained in recipes, can determine but not dictate, an ultimate natural form. Many times, external conditions, and interactions with the environment and other organisms have just as important a role in determining outcomes. An example is the simple algorithm based behavior that enables termites to construct their complex mounds.

NISSAN MOTOR CO. EPORO ROBOTS ARE ABLE TO SELF-ORGANIZE WITH ALGORITHM COMPUTER CODE.

TERMITE MOUNDS IN NAMBIA // WIKIPEDIA 51

DYNAMIC DISEQUILIBRIUM As we saw in module 3 energy will naturally flow toward entropy or dissipation, and this principle drives many of the processes found in nature. For example, materials moving across membranes will tend to flow from higher to lower concentrations. This natural tendency enables organisms to do work. In our example in module 3, the tiny turbine that is ATP synthase is held within a membrane and spun by the flow of hydrogen ions flowing through it.

The mitochondrion of the cell must maintain that imbalance by pumping more ions outside of the membrane to keep up this flow. Like a child pouring water into a toy waterwheel at the beach, the dynamic disequilibrium must be kept up in order for the cell to do the work that allows it to live.

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SYSTEMS “Relationships Matter” REFERENCES SYSTEMS THINKING A Primer, Meadows, Donella H.

and Wright, Diana, Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, Vermont. ISBN 978-1603580557

THE EDEN PROJECT, CORNWALL // WIKIPEDIA 54

SYSTEMS // “RELATIONSHIPS MATTER�

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RELATIONSHIPS MATTER Systems, as a model for understanding the natural world, can be found everywhere. A system comprises three basic things: a shared function, purpose or outcome, a set of elements, and the connections or relationships between (among) these elements.

Ecosystems are made up of three basic elements: a particular place, the living organisms within that place, and the abiotic or non-living resources in that place. There are several different classification schemes for the ecosystems of the world.

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SYSTEMS // “RELATIONSHIPS MATTER�

As we discussed in module 1, biological systems exhibit emergent properties. This is the essence of Little Things Multiply Up, where the resultant phenomenon cannot be explained by its parts alone.

The relationships of elements in a system, therefore, are often more important than the elements themselves. For example, at the rocky intertidal shore, mussel beds can be seen in a distinct band that exists at a certain height on the rocks. This band is determined by the relationship that the mussels have with their environment and with other species. Above the band of mussels there is too much dryness for them to survive low tide, and below, a keystone species, the seastar which needs even more wetness than the mussels, feeds on them, effectively mowing a line from its grazing.

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REFERENCES BIOMIMICRY TAXONOMY DESIGN SPIRAL LIFE’S PRICIPLES These forms were produced by the Biomimicry Institute for use in a typical bio-inspired design sequence. The Design Spiral outlines the steps one can take to translate characteristics from a natural organism to a designed product. The Biomimicry Taxonomy outlines several categories of function and how these functions relate to bio-inspired design. This is useful for a reminder list in the first phases of a design project especially.

The Biomimcry Principles are what the Biomimicry Institute considers the basic operating principles of nature that one should emulate in one’s design. It is useful for using as a criteria for evaluating designs.

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Design Spirals

Natural Models

2. ABSTRACT Design Principles

| spirals

1. DISCOVER

3. BRAINSTORM Potential Applications

BIOLOGY TO DESIGN

4. EMULATE Nature’s Strategies

5. EVALUATE Against Life’s Principles

1. IDENTIFY Function

2. DEFINE Context

2. BIOLOGIZE

GE N E L L A H C OGY L O I B O T

Challenge

3. DISCOVER Natural Models

4. ABSTRACT Design Principles

5. EMULATE Nature’s Strategies

6. EVALUATE Against Life’s Principles

BIOMIMICRY RESOURCE HANDBOOK

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BIOWERKS COURSEBOOK

LILIAN VAN DAAL

STEFANIE NIEUWENHUYSE

DENIZ KARASAHIN

INSTITUTE OF BUILDING STRUCTURES AND STRUCTURAL ABOUT THE COURSE // PAGE 4 DESIGN (ITKE)

YANN WEYMOUTH OF HOK