practice

The Fourth Year of the BID Community

© Don Hammond/Design Pics/CorbisThe BID Community is at a crossroads.  In hindsight, the original concept of creating a "space" where current and aspiring practitioners, facilitators and people knowledge about the human condition could share ideas appears to have been premature.  We have had little success in reaching out to the broader community and BID Community activity has been steadily declining.  It is not clear that we even meet the criteria of a community.  Although the Internet allows us to 'meet' virtually, the energy generated through face-to-face discussions seems to dissipate quickly when we return to our 'day jobs'.  We share an interest in the concepts of biomimicry, biomimetics and bio-inspired design (B3D for short) but adopt a diverse set of approaches in applying these concepts.  This is in itself not an issue but makes it challenging to identify common attitudes, interests and goals.

Making a Living with BID (Norbert Hoeller)

© Kheng Guan Toh - Fotolia.com

A number of participants in the Turning Ideas into Reality conference call hosted by Emer Natalio described the challenges of trying to apply their biomimicry skills in the real world.  During the March 2nd BID Community conference call, Ernst-Jan Mul and Mike Westdijk shared their experiences in the Netherlands.  Both had based their Masters' thesis on biomimicry and worked closely with design firms.  In spite of his design firm’s interest in biomimicry, Mike found that time and financial constraints imposed by clients made it difficult to justify biomimicry.  Ernst-Jan had similar issues and decided to become a free-lance designer in January 2010 so that he could maintain his focus on bio-inspired design.

Welcome Back to BioInspired!

After a year's absence, BioInspired! has been re-launched with a new sponsor, Georgia Tech's Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID).  Whereas the previous newsletter was intended for a broad audience, this newsletter will focus on promoting the practice of bio-inspired design.  It will ask provocative questions that explore fundamental issues, helping to strengthen the discipline.

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