Biologically Inspired Design

Posted on March 4, 2012

You are probably wondering what I have been doing for the past four months.
And Id better be doing something productive, otherwise I have no excuse for
relinquishing my mania for writing. Well, Ive been reading. A lot. And designing.
A lot. I will do another entry on the latter, because I cant wait to share the
former: all the books and articles I have found extremely useful in my
biologically inspired design endeavours. Why, you ask?
Because there is such concept as comfort reading when you dont want to read
anything challenging or too full of ideas. Well, my list is the opposite of that. Its
the kind of literature that energizes, excites, makes you highly uncomfortable,
causes you to down a bottle Nyquil at night just to fall asleep, and continuously
generates opposing ideas in your mind. And you will never look at comfort
reading again. If youd like to give uncomfortable reading a try, proceed further.
As a side note, I am omitting my reviews of books by Janine Benyus, Joseph BarCohen,Michael Braungart and William McDonough and would like to focus on the
lesser known literature. Chances are, if you are reading this list, you are deep
into biomimicry, biomimetics, and nature inspired design already.

Author: Alna Konyk, 2010

Grassi, W., and M. Collins. Leonardo da Vinci. In Nature and Design, edited
by M. Collins, M. A. Atherton and J. A. Bryant. London: WIT Press.
This article must be introduced within the context of the book series that rests
on the parallels between human design and nature. Collins (as the main editor
of the series) considers biology and engineering as disciplines that could have
an advantageous dialogue.
Leonardo da Vinci, according to Grassi and Collins, is a personification of duality
between the detached nature of a scientist and the mind-set of technologist.
The authors present a systematic analysis of Leonardos life and his broad
polytechnic achievements in the disciplines of art, engineering, and natural
sciences. More importantly, they illustrate Leonardos holistic worldview based
on the universal application of natures laws to machines man
architecture the macrocosm.

This article retains objectivity throughout by use of relevant quotes pertaining to

Leonardos achievements, philosophies, and personality traits. Treated as a case
study, it proved very useful to me in the search of a bridge between the
disciplines of biology and design. Also, the list of references provides great
pasture for further research into the mind of a man who mastered the practice
of biologically inspired design.
Lewens, Tim. Organisms and Artifacts: Design in nature and
elsewhere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.
Lewens completed his PhD thesis at the Department of HPS, Cambridge
University in 2001. He became a lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science at
Cambridge and now serves as a governor at Exeter School. In 2009, he was
elected a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
In this book, Tim Lewens addresses a question of teleological terminology within
a discipline of biology and introduces the term the artifact model: the approach
that treats the organic world as though it were designed. He concludes
throughout the book that such thinking model is often useful in ascribing the
meaning and proper functions to living organisms, yet needs to be used with
caution.
This book is highly beneficial to any designer interested in biology, because it
focuses on the design terminology in biology discipline. Moreover, the author
addresses in detail similarities and differences between biological evolution and
technological progress. Tim Lewens takes a critical approach to the enthusiasm
around the evolutionary model of technological change to explain the intentional
creation of artifacts and ponders the debate around myriad forms of design by
nature.
McHarg, Ian L. Design with Nature. Garden City, NY: John Wiley &Sons, 1992.
Ian McHarg was the founder of and a professor emeritus in the Department of
Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is known as the father of ecological planning and has received numerous
honorary degrees and awards, including The National Medal of Art in 1990.

Design with Nature is a pioneering work (originally published in 1969) that

includes ecologically, socially, and ethically oriented theories and methodologies
for design within the limits of biosphere. The premise of the text is that humans
are a part of the natural world and thus should design to fit into the
environment. McHarg states that form does not follow function, but rather, the
two emerge together. If the form does not fit the ecology of which it is a part,
the result is a project that will collapse under the weight of its incompatibility
with its surroundings. McHarg proves this point with several examples of how
the natural setting is capable of influencing the outcome. The book concludes
with a study of a city to identify correlations between health and environment.
The finding revealed a correlation between crowding, social pressure, and
pathology.
This excellent book presents an insightful and practical approach to biologically
inspired design and creates several questions for the reader. Firstly, how can
design act as an interdisciplinary integrator and extend beyond the practice of
simply being informed by natural sciences? Secondly, what is McHargs
recommendation in regards to bridging the gap between nature and culture,
stated in the article Biophilia vs. Technophilia by David Stairs?
Stairs, David. Biophilia and Technophilia: Examining the Nature/Culture Split in
Design Theory. Design Issues 13, no. 3 (1997): 37-44.
David Stairs (MFA in Communication Design) is a graphic design coordinator at
the Central Michigan University, an editor for an online community called
Design-Altruism-Project, and an executive director for Designers Without
Borders.
An article gives an introduction to The Biophilia Hypothesis and questions the
possibility of ecotechnological equilibrium. Stairs challenges Herbert Simons
scientific approach to design theory, stating: Such either/or hypotheses, so
prevalent in an era of information theory, are disturbing. This article is valuable
in an abundance of opposing viewpoints: technophilic (as in the case of Victor
Margolins product milieu), biophilic (Edward Wilsons biocentric world), and
balance (Ezio Manzinis ecotechnological equilibrium). Stairs also mentions
Victor Papaneks case for indigenous people, the best designers in the world
for their practice of handicraft technology that enables them to survive in the
harshest climate without compromising their link to actuality.

The paper concludes with a compromise between the concepts of learning

about the world and doing to the world. The author presents a concise
overview of the struggle between ecological and design worldviews and poses a
question of whether the balance between the two is attainable.
Wahl, Daniel C. Bionics vs. biomimicry: from control of nature to sustainable
participation in nature. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 87,
289-298.
Daniel Christian Wahl has ten years of experience as a sustainability researcher.
Originally trained as a biologist at the University of Edinburgh (1996), he
completed his PhD on whole systems design for sustainability in 2006 at the
Centre for the Study of Natural Design (University of Dundee). Since 2007 he is
the academic director of the Findhorn College and a member of Gaia Education.
This paper suggests that bionics and biomimicry represent two distinct
approaches to biologically inspired design, mainly due to different conceptions
of the relationship between nature and culture. According to Wahl, the aim of
science is shifting towards informing appropriate participation in natural process
(argued by Benyus in Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature), rather than
the enabling of new technologies of prediction, manipulation and control
(covered in Bar-Cohens Biomimetics: biologically inspired technologies). Wahl
asserts that the transition towards sustainability should be facilitated by design
and technology and informed by science, ethics, and the transdisciplinary
integration of multiple perspectives.
Wahl boldly states that sustainability is the wicked problem of design in the 21st
century and urgently requires an adaptation of natures lessons to bring about
radically different worldviews, value systems, intentions, and life styles.
A clear philosophical distinction between the disciplines of bionics and
biomimicry is laid out in this paper, and portions of the text can be used as
introductory-level materials for a debate. It could have further benefited from a
more in-depth exploration of the two concepts with pertinent case studies.

Wahl, Daniel C. Eco-literacy, ethics, and aesthetics in natural design: The

artificial as an expression of appropriate participation in natural process. Centre
for the Study of Natural Design, University of Dundee.
This article offers a unique approach to design that promotes aesthetic of health
(salutogenesis), based on ecological literacy. Wahl shuns the dyadic model of
artificial vs. natural and introduces the concept of triad, bridged by ecological
ethics and aesthetics of participation that also considers cultural, social, and
economic values. The author introduces the term Natural Design Movement
that brings together the diverse fields of design activity and confronts the
reader with the important question of ethical basis for design. Wahl asserts
design as an interdisciplinary facilitator, quotes Ranulph Glanville: science is a
special branch of design and not design a special branch of science. and
reminds of Herbert Simons definition of design as the science of the artificial.
The author goes on to juxtapose biocentric and anthropocentric worldviews in
the context of ecological ethics and states that awareness breeds a sense of
responsibility in a designer. He concludes with the general analysis of relevant
literature and avoids calling Natural Design a new field of specialization. Rather,
Wahl believes that it is a unity of all the currents of 21st century design, which
are contributing to the transformation of human society towards sustainable
practices.
This article is a great collection of philosophical views in the field of sustainable
design over the last fifty years. It unravels the participatory worldview
mentioned in Bionics vs. Biomimicry article and presents the topic within a
historical context. Wahls analysis has triggered my own struggles with the
discipline of biomimicry, such as the integration of culture within the Lifes
Principle Circle and the role of competition in natural systems and its translation
to engineered systems.
Wilson, Jamal O., and David Rosen. The effects of biological examples in
idea generation. Design Studies 31 (2010): 169-186.
Georgia Techs Center for Biologically Inspired Design brings together a group of
interdisciplinary biologists, engineers and physical scientists who seek to
facilitate research and education for innovative products and techniques based
on biologically inspired design solutions. The participants of CBID believe that

science and technology are increasingly hitting the limits of approaches based
on traditional disciplines, and biology may serve as an untapped resource for
design methodology, with concept testing having occurred over millions of years
of evolution.
Wilson and Rosen introduce the principle of local and distant analogies as tools
for idea generation, asserting the advantage of innovative component in the
former. They also cite other literature where the number of distant analogies
used in the design process, was positively correlated with the novelty of the
resulting design. The concept sets the stage for a study conducted with
mechanical engineers in evaluating the hypothesis of novelty and variety of
designs following the presentation of examples from the world of biology. The
authors proceed to prove the alternative hypothesis through qualitative research
with results indicating the existing correlation.
The article is a good resource of research methodology in the field of biologically
inspired design.