3rd Quarter 2011 BID Community Update

© Don Hammond/Design Pics/CorbisSummer has flown by, the leaves are changing and the weather is definitely turning cool in Southern Ontario.  The last three months have given me an opportunity to chat with many of the BID Community members, listen to their ideas on bio-inspired design and get their perspectives on where the BID Community should be heading.  The article What Defines the BID Community? is a summary of the discussions.  The first member call explored a broad range of topics and turned into An Interview with a Bio-Inspired Architect (Randy Anway)

Almost all of the members felt that the BioInspired! newsletter should be available to the public, a change that will go into affect with this issue.  Members saw value in the BID Community as a place to discuss issues and collaborate with other members who are genuinely interested in the field and committed to supporting each other.  A good way to engage members is through projects, two of which are described in the Call to Action: Upcoming BID Community Projects article.  This issue also includes Biomimicry in Higher Education Webinar Part 2 (Karen Verbeek) and a Research Review: Biologically Inspired Design (Shu, Ueda, Chiu, Cheong) exploring bio-inspired manufacturing and the process of bio-inspired innovation.

The Algae Competition team (Damian Rogers, Ernst-Jan Mul, Fil Salustri, Janet Kubler, Karen Verbeek, Mike Westdijk, Kamelia Miteva and Norbert Hoeller) has been very busy defining the problem we wanted to tackle, developing a conceptual solution and exploring ideas.  The team is in the final stages of creating a visually exciting and insightful entry for the 2011 International Algae Competition in the Algae Landscape Design track that poses the challenge "How will algae production systems be integrated into future landscapes and eco-communities and what will they look like and how will they work?"

From the beginning, the team wanted to create a problem-driven, systems solution that would deliver tangible value.  The team explored how algae technologies could be deployed in disaster relief situations, using Haiti as a specific example.  The final design integrates ideas from ecology and 'design for social business' with algae solutions that can improve water quality and support local food production.  Aside from delivering a visually exciting and insightful competition entry, the project also provided insights into the process of doing bio-inspired design.  More information will be published in the December BioInspired! newsletter.

 

Please let me know what you think about any of these articles, either by posting comments to the articles or through the Contact Us link at the bottom of each website page.                

          Thanks,
          Norbert Hoeller

 

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