Be, Contemplate, Imagine
Biomimetic Design • Week 6
It’s late afternoon, Thursday, February 23, 2023 and my chosen sit spot is in the bay window area of my living room in the Armatage neighborhood of South Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is 13°F outside, partly sunny and still. Southern Minnesota was just gifted a foot of snow last night. I am surrounded by sounds of neighbors hard at work moving snow by shovel and snowblower. It’s the perfect day to contemplate my design challenges and organisms that may inspire and inform solutions.
This is my Boston Terrier, Luna, the neighborhood supervisor.
My three design challenges include:
How might I re envision the system of golf equipment (making, buying, using, end of life)?
How might nature create and maintain a healthy or sustainable neighborhood?
How might I create and maintain a more sustainable home?
The following are a list of 30 total organisms that I am interested in learning more about.
How might I re envision the system of golf equipment (making, buying, using, end of life)?
Organisms:
Tortoise: A tortoise’s shell can withstand pressure with rigid and flexible layers.
Humans: Spongy human bones can handle stress efficiently with trabeculae.
Mollusks: Mollusks have shells that incorporate interlocking to create material toughness.
Trees: The roots of trees attached to the ground permanently.
Earwig: The earwing’s wings optimize space by origami fold.
Cats: Cat’s paws retract.
Tadpoles: Tadpoles mouths are suckers that stick.
Ferns: Fern stems release from a spiral to transform mechanical energy.
Chameleons: Chameleons have tongues that launch and transform mechanical energy.
Desert locust/grasshopper: grasshoppers have hind legs that help them launch by strategic leverage point.
Bamboo: Fiber arrangement in bamboo provides strength and material efficiency.
Plants: Plants use photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy.
How might nature create a healthy or sustainable neighborhood?
Organisms:
Ants: Ant colonies respond quickly to distribute food, this self-organization provides resilience and maintains their community.
Bacteria: Through social cooperation, bacteria produce biofilm to protect its community.
Black capped chickadee: The black capped chickadee uses specific calls to warn multiple species within their community of potential danger.
Chimpanzees: Chimpanzees share tools, such as termite fishing probes, to educate the next generation.
Epiphytes (plants): Epiphytes in mangrove forests have mutual relationships with multiple species to survive.
Refugia (rescue reefs): Refugia help restore coral reefs after disaster.
Water striders: Water striders use waves to communicate to each other on water via vibration.
Carpenter ants: Carpenter ants can sense intruders based on scents that don’t match nest-mates.
Wetland ecosystems: Organisms within a wetland ecosystem work together to remove particles and pollutants from water.
Prairie ecosystems: Plant species diversity creates long-term stability, manages disturbance in the community and maintains biodiversity.
Honey bees: Honey bees need a well-rounded diet to get necessary nutrients to function.
Meerkats: Meerkats can manage and resolve conflict by taking turns leading.
Flamingos: Flamingos form friendships of small groups to help them survive by watching out for each other in various ways (e.g. finding food, finding a mate, etc.).
Baboons: Baboons compromise as a group and thus coordinate by self-organization.
How might I create and maintain a more sustainable home and home situation?
Organisms:
Corals: Corals produce rock-hard reefs, or coral-skeletons, by assembling proteins in a way that creates a scaffold for minerals.
Birds: Birds build nests and determine the nest location responsively. This shows adaptive behaviors, optimization of shape and materials, protects from other animals, senses temperature cues from the environment, and learning (feedback loops).
Leaves of plants: Interconnected loops in the vein systems in leaves provide resilience to damage.
Sunflowers: Sunflowers grow seeds in a Fibonacci sequence to optimize by maximizing space in a designated area.
I end today’s session amazed by the beauty of this bounty of snow and feel grateful to have a home to stay warm in, and my little buddy Luna, to venture out in the snow with.
