BioInspired! So What? Now What!

Abstract: Effective bioinspiration requires dialogue between designers and biologists, and this dialogue must be rooted in a shared scientific understanding of living systems. To support learning from “nature’s overarching design lessons” the Biomimicry Institute has produced ten “Unifying Patterns of Nature”. These patterns have been developed to engage with those interested in finding biologically inspired solutions to human challenges. Yet, although well-intentioned and appealing, they are likely to dishearten biologists. The aim of this paper is to identify why and propose alternative principles based on evolutionary theory.

This paper by Noah Pentelovitch (OXO) and Prof. Jacquelyn Nagel (James Madison University) describes a workshop to introduce bio-inspired design concepts and four bio-inspired design tools (Visual Analogy Sketching, BID Canvas, Engineering-to-Biology Thesaurus, and BioSearch) to 11 designers and engineers from OXO and Hydro Flask.  Afte4r an introduction to the tools, the participants applied them in different sequences to develop novel solutions for a real-world problem.  The paper reviewed quantitative feedback on the tools and also summarised a qualitative analysis of focus group discussions to reveal key themes.

This paper is one of the few that explores how practitioners use bio-inspired design.  Follow-up studies are planned to see how practitioners use the tools outside of the workshop.