Dedicated to furthering the practice of bio-inspired design.

Welcome to the BioInspired Site!

The Bio-Inspired Design (BID) Community promotes the practical application of bio-inspired design, emphasizing the ‘challenge to biology’ approach.  The objective is to foster more effective and efficient methods for developing solutions based on natural principles.  The goal is to encourage the conscious application of principles that support and promote solutions facilitating sustainable human behavior and leading to successful products, services and systems initiatives.

Members of the community include current practitioners in the field of bio-inspired design; aspiring practitioners (the 'next wave'); facilitators; and people knowledgeable in human history, psychology and cognition.  The community will help build bridges between disciplines and act as a hub for collecting and broadcasting BID information, knowledge and expertise in three key areas:

  • motivation to apply BID by demonstrating its value in various contexts
  • development of tools, methods and approaches supporting the effective and efficient use of BID
  • expanded opportunities to apply BID through sharing successes, identifying trends and encouraging collaboration

A substantial amount of material is available to anyone but only registered website users can create and rate content or post comments.  A quarterly membership fee for individuals will support this website, the quarterly newsletter and future services.  Paid-up members have first access to newsletters and member-only content.  Sign up using the Become a Member link in the right sidebar.  The graphic on the right will be updated periodically to show progress towards our 100-member goal.

See Finding Your Way Around the Website and Website Help for information about navigating the website.

Announcing the Fifth Issue of Zygote Quarterly

Sun, 2013/03/31 - 18:54 — nhoeller

Welcome to the fifth issue of Zygote Quarterly, now at our official domain http://zqjournal.org.  Articles include:

Please pass this message to others who might be interested, participate in our LinkedIn group, contact us through the website (right side of the footer) and join us on this path of discovery.  We encourage you to subscribe to our mailing list via the website to ensure you receive timely notification of new issues. 

Tom McKeag       Norbert Hoeller       Marjan Eggermont

WTF, Evolution? Designing for Unnatural Selection

Tue, 2013/05/21 - 04:38 — nhoeller
Start: 
Thu, 2013/05/23
Location: 
San Francisco, CA
Link: 
http://parlor0413.eventbrite.com/

In this seriously tongue-in-cheek Parlor, Creative Strategist Zak Brazen, of Brazenworks Design and Ingenuity Lab, will explore design opportunities for the near future, when plants and animals are your clients. Parlor participants will imagine, prototype and design tools, gadgets and services that give plants and animals the resources they need to cope with climate change in real time.

December 2012 Newsletter Now Available

Fri, 2012/12/21 - 14:55 — nhoeller

The December issue is available at http://bioinspired.sinet.ca/content/december-2012-newsletter-issue-92. The newsletter can be read online by clicking on the article titles.

Thanks to everyone who contributed! Comments welcome through the website or the Contact Us link at the bottom of every page.

Best wishes for the holidays!

Zygote Quarterly a Finalist in the 2012 Digital Magazine Awards

Tue, 2012/11/13 - 17:02 — nhoeller

Marjan Eggermont submitted Zygote Quarterly to Digital Magazine Awards.  ZQ has been selected as a finalist in the Science & Nature Magazine of the Year and Magazine Launch of the Year (New Title) categories.  ZQ is up against Scientific American and New Scientist in the first category. 

Awards for the best magazine in each category will be announced at the Proud Gallery, Camden, London on the afternoon of the 6th December, 2012. 

Janine Benyus Wins 2012 Design Mind Award from Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Thu, 2012/05/17 - 04:38 — nhoeller

From http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/media/media/press-releases.html

Janine Benyus, a proponent of biomimicry in design and innovation, has won the Design Mind category of the 13th annual National Design Awards program sponsored by Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. Benyus is the co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8, the global leader in biomimicry innovation consulting, professional training, and educational program and curricula development.

"It has been my privilege and my lifelong passion to bring nature’s wisdom to the people who design our world,” said Benyus. “Being honored by this creative community is a halleluiah moment for biomimicry—a coming of age for nature-inspired design."

M.Sc. position for Biofouling Research (St. Francis Xavier University)

Fri, 2012/04/06 - 13:57 — nhoeller

The Center [for Biofouling Research at St. Francis Xavier University] is accepting applications for a MSc student to join our group, starting May 15 2012.  This position is fully funded at $17,000 for two years, and tuition waivers are also possible. The project will entail a range of observational and experimental approaches to characterize settlement of various marine larvae on designed surfaces. 

New Call for Applications: PhD training in Biomimicry

Wed, 2012/03/28 - 09:45 — peter niewiarowski

We are still reviewing applications and have also secured funding from new sponsors so we are renewing our call for applications. See our new flyer with more details about areas of interest for biomimicry research and applications. We will continue to review applications until all fellowships are awarded.

PhD Training in Biomimicry

The Cleveland Institute of Art and The University of Akron, in affiliation with The Biomimicry Institute, are launching advanced biomimicry training for PhDs in the Fall of 2012. The partnership brings the disciplines of design, science and business together through the interdisciplinary Integrated Bioscience PhD program at the University of Akron, creating a unique advanced platform for biomimicry research and training.

Biomimicry in Architecture by Michael Pawlyn (Book Review)

Mon, 2011/11/28 - 10:34 — nhoeller
Link: 
Treehugger (Leonora Oppenheim)

The book opens with a quote from Buckminster Fuller. "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." From there on in Pawlyn sets out to demonstrate how biomimicry offers architects a whole new system to design by. A system that will produce not only radically more efficient and effective structures, with great savings on material and energy costs, but also stunningly beautiful buildings that will have the 'bilbao effect' wherever they are located.

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