BioInspired! So What? Now What!

The HOK/Guild partnership has provided the Biomimicry Guild with the opportunity to work on significant, high profile and complex opportunities.  This has led to the development and refinement of a number of tools, including the Fully Integrated Thinking (FIT) process which supports integrated and holistic thinking and helps integrate the Life’s Principles into the full range of the design cycle.

One way to build momentum and create tangible change is by turning good ideas into successful products or services.  Achieving broad market acceptance demonstrates value, can change people's perception and may even influence their behavior for the better.  Are there medium-term opportunities to take bio-inspired design ideas and turn them into business opportunities?

Biomimicry is increasingly becoming part of the regular lexicon of industrial design and sustainability.  It is even making its way into mainstream media and popular print.  Now Magazine ran "Bring on nature’s design firm" this summer as the cover story.  Our local community paper, "The Banner" recently featured the article "Nature’s brilliance offers hope for future" by David Suzuki.  Those of us in the biomimicry community are asking "Great!  Where are we making progress with biomimicry in business and to what degree are we involved at the product development level?"

Norbert Hoeller caught up (virtually) with Ernst-Jan Mul in a Barcelona café.  Ernst-Jan had just participated in a brain-storming session organized by Fco. Javier of Aleen on the bio-inspired development of a deep-sea robot. Although many people are looking to nature for design ideas, Ernst-Jan is one of the few who has tried to build a career around practicing bio-inspired design.  He has been active in promoting the field of biomimicry by developing new tools, educating students, training companies, applying biomimetic strategies in design projects and through research.