Biomimicry

Today I learned a new word. Biomimicry.

Biomimicry  is in essence the mimicking or imitating of nature to solve problems in all walks of design research and industry.

The question to ask your self, if you wanted to become a biomimic would be “How would nature do it?”

For example - if you wanted to build a building with an essentially self cleaning exterior, and you asked yourself how nature would do it, you might come up with the Lotus plant, whose leaves are covered with tiny points that hold the dirt away from the actual leaf…. and imitate this in a paint (implemented by Sto Corp) who have developed a paint that does pretty much the same as a lotus plant, and every time it rains the dirt is washed away and the building cleaned.

There are many other examples of this and more and more companies are exploring the possibilities hidden in biomimicry. To read more about the potential and the work being done in this field go to Two Steps Forward, where I learned about this. He has a huge collection of links to follow to learn more about this interesting philosophy.