Image by Unknown: Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water is a famous example of biophilia for it's integration into the landscape.

In a research project I am exploring right now we are researching the sensory experiences of people within the built environment. There are some great concepts coming together that I’ll share in upcoming posts, but one of the themes that keeps reoccurring is the difference between biomimicry and biophilia. It’s not something that I’ve given a lot of thought to in the past, but I’ve found a few resources I’d like to share.

E. O. Wilson

I have to admit I still haven’t read E. O. Wilson’s original writing on the subject, but his quote that captures the essence of biophilia is;

“… the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.”

You can find many, many wonderful quotes from E. O. Wilson, but this particular one came form a gorgeous brochure for the E. O. Wilson Centre for Biophillia.

What is Biophilia

Image by Unknown: Boston Methodist Hospital, in Michigan (left) and Alberta Hospital (right).

In a nutshell, biophilia is the process of integrating nature, visually and literally into architecture and urban planning. Once seen as a “nice” idea with good intentions, there is now a growing awareness from a scientific level, that integration of nature can have significant impacts on a human’s health and wellness. An increasing number of studies suggest that a simple window to the outside world with some greenery will encourage fast recovery times in hospitals and less need for painkillers. Biophilia is very human centric while encouraging and validating an integration of ecology within the human habitat.

How does that differ from Biomimicry?

Image by Unknown: Diagram showing self shading function mimicked from nature.

Biomimicry focusses on understanding the functional strategies of nature and how they can influence and inspire innovation. It is a specific solutions based methodology that fuels ideation, as well as frames aspirational goals to guide innovation methodologies. Health and wellness is implied as a characteristic of good sustainable practice, but the intention is more systemic methodology within design.

Some comparisons to put it in perspective

To put it in context here are examples I use to frame the concepts:

The Building Envelope:

• Biophilia: Focus is on allowing as much natural light to pass through, preferably with vistas to parks or wild regions that are conserved during the construction of the project. Sight lines within the space should be clearly defined and linked to occupants’ movements. Where possible natural air should be able to flow through the building, linking occupants to the outside through the sensory experiences of a breeze. Where possible green walls should be integrated internally to encourage plant life indoors, directly situated within the context of the occupants.
• Biomimicry: Initial focus is to understand the context, what ecosystem is this building in and what are the core functional challenges of that ecosystem. This could include a relationship to rain, sun and wind and would include a taxonomy of general principles found within that context. The design process would focus on recreating those functions within the materials, assemblies and structures of the building envelope. For example, if the organisms in that local ecosystem have strategies for self shading to protect from harsh light, these could be mimicked in the configuration of cladding in order to create an external microclimate to keep the building cool. Further insights into water would suggest the desired rates of flow, absorption and evaporation on site, in order for the building to function more like an organism within the ecosystem.

Weaknesses of Both

Biophillia becomes superficial when the effort is to simply copy the form of nature within the built environment. Designing a column to look like a tree has the air of novelty. Designing the pots to look “earthy” so as to extend the tree more into the environment seems more of a gimmick.

Biomimicry becomes superficial when viewed as a reductive form oriented methodology. When only one physical function is viewed and copied, through a narrow lens, the deeper lessons of place based, systemic awareness are overlooked and the end result rarely “behaves” as a natural organisms.

Value of Both

It is tiring when you see these two concepts pitched against one another when the deep essences overlap on so many fronts. The strength of biophilia in recent times has been the measurable impact on human health and wellness. Because we are primarily living in a human dominated world, benefits need to be framed through this lens. Often biomimicry when taken to the extreme alienates this audience as the building as an organism within an ecosystem is far too abstract for the person signing bills and paying for the development.

Integrating the methodologies together and recognizing that each works towards the development of a built environment that better “fits” humans to “place” should be the goal, rather than identifying the differences between the two concepts. Further emphasis on the measurable impacts, health and wellness, sustainability, and business will continue to add relevancy to the methodologies and increase the audience willing to participate.

Deep Dive

If you want to dive deeper into some research, here is a list of great resources:

Janine Benyus’s overview of Biomimicry – her book synthesized into a core outline

Introduction to the Theory of Biophilic Design – opening chapter from an excellent book

Designing Nature into the Daily Spaces of Childhood – good argument for children being engaged in nature

How to Create Healthy Environments and Health People – review of science around biophillia in health care

Image by Danielle Jedral: A superb overview of design process from the mind of a second year industrial design student.

In my Industrial Design studio classes at OCAD University, the students are tasked with keeping a design journal. Their “job” is to collect the thoughts between projects. In particular, I am looking for the insights that capture their increasing awareness of design and their personal role in this creative space.

For some the task is difficult, because it requires a certain amount of honest reflection and a particular kind of discipline, but in every single one of these journals there is a page that stands out. The best ones capture a sneak peak of a young design student’s mind as they begin to play in this space.

What is Industrial Design

Danielle Jedral was a student from last semester, and I’ve included a page from her journal here. It came out of a conversation at the very beginning of the semester as the class and I explored different ways of defining what design is, and what their roles would be in the semester. I love the page for its simple logic. Danielle offered that I could share this, which I thought was pretty special, but it means you should all go and visit her side project here.

Image from Ingredients No. 5: BREAD (The Bureau of Research Engineering Art & Design) are developing hybrid, variable materials... just a little snippet you'll find in the Ingredients Magazine available on line.

Chris Lefteri has written an excellent array of books for designers around materials. They started off as a series on the latest and greatest technologies in specific materials such as wood, ceramics, glass, etc… Over the last few years he has positioned himself as a unique materials consultant for designers.

Apparently Chris is also very generous as he is constantly releasing free resources through a range of side projects. A favourite of mine, and my students, shout out to Rudy for reminding me about this, is a little web zine called “Ingredients”. It’s a playful magazine with a range of provocative essays, stunning photography and general materials news. Jump to the link available here and click around to download the latest issue, I think there are five in total, and I really encourage diving in and snooping around (you have to “sign up” but I have never been spammed by them, so all should be good).

Sneak peak at images inside excellent paper reviewing self repairing materials. Click on link for a deep dive!

I’ve recently become more obsessed with self healing materials, which I have learned in materials science speak is “autonomous material systems”. I like that fancy title, in one part for it’s scienceness factor, but mostly because it reminds us that materials are complex systems, not a static substance. To get started I’ve included the Wikipedia definition is here (which has an excellent overview of the general research):

Self-healing materials are a class of smart materials that have the structurally incorporated ability to repair damage caused by mechanical usage over time. The inspiration comes from biological systems, which have the ability to heal after being wounded.

Below I’ve collected a variety of case studies and a general overview of some of the principles. If you’re ready to dive into the meat of the science there is a paper available here that really shows off the research.

Autonomous Materials Systems

The best site for an overview of the science as well as mind blowing examples of the materials research  is the Autonomous Materials Systems website from the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (whew that’s a mouthful).

The materials are incredible. Their research presents three main types of self healing materials;

• Microencapsulated Systems - material containing little capsules filled with a healing agent that bonds when in contact with catalysts also embedded in the material (see diagram below).
• Microvascular Systems – materials filled with capillaries filled with healing agents
• Mechanoresponsive Polymers – modifications made at the chemical level that control how a material responds under strain – simple example is changing colour before failure. I’ll admit I understand this kind the least.

Image by Carl Hastrich - modified from Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology: Pop a couple of capsules, connect to a catalyst and done! Simple as that.

The images of the embedded capsules are amazing, as you can see below:

Image from Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology: A scanning electron microscope image shows the fracture plane of a self-healing material with a ruptured urea-formaldehyde microcapsule in a thermosetting matrix.

Self Healing Microelectronics

There are some great movies that show how the above technology could repair scratches and dings in paints – for that perfect auto finish. The real holy grail that appears to be emerging is the development of semiconductors capable to self repairing surprisingly frequent damage. In fact, according to a paper released by Scott R. White and Nancy R. Sottos, up to 80% of semiconductors fail during manufacture. Businessweek has a great article here describing their research, all be it with a cheeky opening line from Jay Leno of all things.

Microvascular Systems

Image by Janet Sinn Hanlon, UIUC: Cracks in a brittle coating are healed autonomously via a three-dimensional microvascular network embedded in the underlying substrate. The network contains a healing agent (red) which polymerizes after contacting the catalyst (purple) in the damaged regions.

Another variation on the theme is to create a material embedded with capillaries of healing material that can come in contact with embedded catalytic substances to trigger self healing bonding. It appears this process is a little more labour intensive in fabrication, but makes for some amazing diagrams.

Image by Dorothy Loudermilk, UIUC: The microvascular self-healing concept consists of an embedded microvascular network containing a fluid healing agent and dispersed catalyst particles. Crack damage intersects the network, allowing healing agent to fill the crack and react with the catalyst. Healing is repeatable due to the vascular nature of the healing agent supply.

Show me the goods!

While there don’t seem to be many tangible products available, beyond self repairing paints, concrete may be one of the first mass produced items. A quick search for self healing concrete reveals many researchers rushing to find an affordable solution with some great results. Read here for an overview of the research behind the impressive photo below.

Image by Nicole Casal Moore: Normal concrete would have failed long ago, but in this case the self healing micro structure allows many small cracks to dissipate force rather than one major failure.

I’m curious to know how the strain testing works. Is this analogous to an earthquake? Are we looking at the future building material to be sought after in earthquake prone areas?

Self Healing and the Future

Obviously non of the case studies begin to have the level of functionality that compete with natural materials, such as skin and bones, but it does suggest there is a lot happening in this topic. I’m curious what the primary application will be that would be the major success to drive things forward. Self healing car paint is obvious, and reducing the failure rate of semiconductors sounds interesting, but I’m curious how designers would think differently if it was available at the consumer plastics level. Do we need cameras and cell phones to self heal? I’m assuming the real value will lie at the infrastructure level; self healing pipes, linings for electric cables and sewage sound a little boring, but aging infrastructure in cities is a huge issue. Toronto is currently facing an estimated $1.7 billion repair bill for it’s rusted water pipes. That’s an enormous, if unlikely, opportunity for innovation.

The Value of a Forest and Condo Tower

images © boeri studio (stefano boeri, gianandrea barreca, giovanni la varra) - from design boom: showing the proposed structures with a cross section with full grown trees.

The Vertical Forest by Stefano Boeri is an ambitious condominium tower under construction that includes full grown trees integrated into the balcony. Moving beyond a formalist statement of having the beauty of trees, the architects have made a case for the improved functionality these trees bring. Included in the link are detailed diagrams showing proposed improvement in air quality, wind protection, shade and more. My favourite is below:

image © boeri studio (stefano boeri, gianandrea barreca, giovanni la varra) from design boom: excellent images showing the desired functionality of the trees

Excitingly, the building is currently under construction. I’m looking forward to seeing the results emerge over the next few years.

Opportunistic Urban Planting

image from Natalie Jeremijenko: showing the NoPARK park in "action"

This is an old favourite of mine for it’s cheekiness and brilliant logic. Natalie Jermijenko, environmental activist and designer, proposes to plant gardens in the front of every fire hydrant in New York City. Since cars aren’t allowed to park there, the spaces are going unused, and since the fire hydrants are only used in emergency, the gardens are likely to live a long time before being trampled by a few trucks. And of course, once the chaos is cleared, with a little patching up the garden could be back to it’s full health again. The project is call NoPARK, and if you visit the link here, you can see an excellent clip walking through the genius logic of the project.

The Pothole Gardner

image from design boom by steve wheen: detail of a pothole that has been "gardened"

Taking the above idea to extremes is a project by Steve Wheen to fill potholes in London with tiny miniature gardens. More playful yet, the gardens come with scale models of details such as lawnmowers and phone booths. The Pothole Gardner is a great statement on having fun with all the cracks in the sidewalk.

The Grass is Greener at Dinner

image by alan tansey from design boom: 'picNYC' by haiko cornelissen architecten

I’ve always wanted to have an urban apartment with a grass floor, although I’ll admit I’m almost more excited about designing the internal daylighting that would make it possible. This cheeky table by Alan Tansey is a nice start in that direction. I like the idea of growing sprouts in my Lawn Table and adding them to the salad as we go along.

Image by Carl Hastrich: Another diagram communicating conceptual process.

I’ve moved into a position where I can do strategic design research, which I need to explain online as things settle down in the new year. Ever since starting this blog I have been exploring the key questions around innovation and the various processes, recently some big ah-ha moments are occurring that are weaving these thoughts together.

What really is design anyway

Sometimes I can be a bad ambassador for design. I can’t relate to people who don’t see the critical need for design thinking tools. When I meet someone who assumes that designers only wrap pretty skins around functional objects my eyes glaze over.

The reality is that contemporary design process is much more about making sense from ambiguity. It is a rigorous, systematic methodology for gathering insights and reading between the lines of what people say they want, and what they really need. There are of course rigorous methodologies for developing and implementing solutions to problems, but the real value lies in identifying what the problems are in the first place.

Clarity in Confusion

Reading a recent article in Fast Company I fell in love with the definition of complexity and ambiguity by Dev Patnaik, CEO of strategy firm Jump;

“Uncertainty is when you’ve defined the variable but don’t know its value. Like when you roll a die and you don’t know if it will be a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. But ambiguity is when you’re not even sure what the variables are. You don’t know how many dice are even being rolled or how many sides they have or which dice actually count for anything.”

Business magazines are regularly mentioning that ambiguity is on the rise in current business and this begins to make it all clear to me.

Designers have been comfortable with ambiguity for ever. Compare schools of design with other disciplines and one of the first things you will notice are the open-ended nature of the project briefs. Design thrives on diving head first into an enormous topic. This is exactly the central point for injecting design methodology at the beginning of a project, rather than the end.

Good design will ask weird questions directly to your face, and not be satisfied by the first answer. Good design will uncover a broad complex network of insights and needs, and then articulate it all such a way that everyone can engage.

If Kanye West Gets it, So Can Business

I’m looking for ways different people are framing the need for design and then out of nowhere Kanye West says:

“Scientists and Designers need to unite and directly affect government.”

It seems that Kanye recently burst open a twitter manifesto of design and change, ranging from evolving schools to picking up from where Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs left off. I’m never sure if Kanye West is the best person to have in your corner, but having a well dressed slightly crazy ambassador is always entertaining…

Selling Ambiguity

One of the biggest innovation opportunities right now is navigating ambiguity. By explicitly communicating where it exists and facilitating a pathway towards actionable steps to solve problems within that space, designers have tremendous value.

Are Vacuum Cleaners the Measure of Success?

Image from MBA Polymers Website: Example vacuum cleaner using EvoSource™ ABS 4136. The example is boring, but I think that is a success of the material.

TED talks like this one from Capt. Charles Moore have me convinced that recycled plastic is mostly a myth. His research has suggested that exactly “diddly squat” percent of plastic is recycled. While that sounds a little harsh, it’s probably not far from the truth. Ever since my rant about upcycling in nature I have been looking for examples where plastic is not only recycled, but is also used at a high quality. MBA Polymers is a company that has an impressive sourcing program for collecting high grade polymers that can be produced at a level that replaces virgin materials. The products they are being used for are not earth shattering; vacuum cleaners and desk top stationary items, but perhaps that is actually the point. When “high-end” recycled plastic is used for standard items, maybe that means the material is doing it’s job and doesn’t require a fancy design statement to make it legitimate.

Plastic Toys that Return to the Beach?

Image from website: Beach toy that will return to being sand, sort of.

The other way of preventing the oceans being clogged with plastic are polymers that biodegrade in water. I discovered Metabolix plastics in Business Week yesterday, of all places, and the article even discusses the need to prevent build up in the pacific ocean. The polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) material is apparently not that new, but it is now available at commercial quantities for production. While the cost comparison is quite high, up to four times the price of equivalent non-bio plastics, I’m pleased to see that there are many applications around. My favourite example is a beach set that will slowly biodegrade in 2-3 years, more than enough time for the kiddies.

And for any of you out there worried about the use of precious corn, read this article about farmers stock piling their crops in enormous silos.

Agriculture Books from Agriculture Waste

It’s not quite as catchy as Kramer’s coffee table book that folds out into a coffee table, but it’s not bad!

I’ve followed this material development for a little while as I’m a little self conscious of the enormous quantities of paper I go through. Canopy, which is an excellent non-profit environmental organization, has been pushing for innovations in paper to reduce the horrifying quantities of paper being generated from forests. A very positive development is “Second Harvest” paper, which uses fibre from agricultural waste. They have an excellent image, below, describing the full story, but please visit the website for a list of resources in sourcing “eco-papers“.

Image from Canopy website: Great info-graphic!

Image from Biomimicry Group: This evolving list of deep principles is a complex tool for deep inspiration. It is at the core of biomimicry as a systemic, regenerative innovation tool, and requires many people, like Kathy Zarsky, to experiment with methods of telling these stories. Click for a larger version.

Life’s Principles

Life’s principles are the deep principles of nature that fuel and inspire deep sustainability, or whatever is beyond that concept. These principles, in the table above, are present in all organisms at multiple scales and levels. They are the deep criteria for thriving and surviving on earth, while creating conditions conducive to life. It is through these principles that work is done to prevent superficial biomimicry, because each principles challenges humans to think systemically within a broader context than a single organism. As a consequence they can be challenging stories to tell (I have two lectures that go over 2 and half hours each…).

Enter Kathy Zarsky, alumni from the Biomimicry Specialty Certificate.

Image from Kathy Zarsky: example of one entry into materials use - when visiting the site, click on the various links to see different layers of stories regarding these principles.

Kathy is driven by complexity and the desire to tell deep, interconnected stories of relationships. Not satisfied with a list of life’s principles, Kathy built a web site with extraordinary depth of content. This web site goes through the life’s principles with examples from nature, case studies from design and a personal synthesis summarizing the need and opportunities of exploring these deep insights.

I thoroughly recommend spending some time and patience exploring the content, as there is a lot of depth and as with all complicated tools, it will take a moment to get into the flow of Kathy’s thinking.

Seeing the Principles in Action

To put the Life’s Princples into context there are a few case studies on Fast Company Magazine sharing stories of biomimicry and two of these projects have well documented processes.

Smart Design and IBM – Smart Cities

Smart Design used biomimicry in a workshop for IBM’s SmartCity initiative and the life’s principles formed the core element of their process. Here’s a good quote:

Although the designers were inspired by the natural examples, they quickly found a more actionable solution in the Life’s Principles, a chart created by the Biomimicry Guild to illustrate how the earth regulates and conserves resources within its own giant ecosystem.

Image from Fast Company: defaced version of the life's principles showing designers synthesizing and digesting the content. Very biological really.

The image above shows the designer’s scribbling over the chart and connecting it to their own insights. If you don’t know this, when a designer scribbles all over your work, it is usually a good thing!

The conclusion of the project appears to be a video outlining a future city scenario, but it is the process and experience of the designers in the article that is the most enlightening story from my perspective. They had fun looking directly at, or physically experiencing the organisms, but found it too difficult and forced to abstract the natural insights for design. When they were offered the broader, more complex principles, the creative team had the opportunity to find the connections to the design challenge, and then use organisms to full understand the principles further.

IDEO and the USGBC

The other case study is a workshop run by dear friend Tim McGee and IDEO, exploring how nature can inspire improved communication processes within the USGBC. My favourite element within this case study is the time line showing the design biomimicry process they followed (also included at the end of this post). The highlights are:

• It begins in design – researching the “users” and understanding the context of the challenge
• Before jumping to solutions, bio-inspiration is presented to the group according to the previous insights
  • Inspiration included organisms, but were presented in the deeper context of life’s principles; i.e. “why” should we look at this organism
• Playful, challenging, broad ideation, connecting all the inspiration and insights into a variety of ideas
• Simple, clear communication of final insights

The reason why I mention this story is to highlight the conversation of life’s principles within the biology research stage. Without the life’s principles it is easy to get excited about an organism, but the deeper principles reminds designers that the organism is parter of a larger, inter-connected system. If you make it explicit, it pushes whatever design ideas are developed to also be connected at a broader systems level.

Image from Fast Company: excellent visual diagram of the creative process. Link jumps to the article.

Image from J Scott Tuner and Rupert C Soar - Figure 9 from excellent paper available by clicking the image above.

Why is biomimicry superficial?

Back at the beginning of this blog I wrote an entry commenting that biomimicry does not guarantee sustainability. It was not meant as a critique against biomimicry as a methodology, but rather at those who only wish to learn superficial insights from nature. A recent comment highlighted the complexity of this conversation, when Jamie Saunders commented that “biomimicry” as a term might suggest non-systems thinking;

Might this be supported if ‘ecomicry’ rather than ‘biomicry’ was initially considered ? Co-evolution and ‘ecomimicry’ – drawing a conceptual understanding and insight from the ‘whole’ ecosystem’ – ‘the interwoven systems that can provide “life support” for current and future multi-species inhabitants.’

My answer, in full here, explains that “bios” has always been interpreted by those pioneering biomimicry to incorporate all of life sciences; including biology, ecology, evolutiona and much more. In other words, at all scales and at multiple levels; form, process and ecosystem. Unfortunately, most stories celebrate a form based level of inspiration; velcro for example, and skip over the deeper, more complex stories; such as Paul Hawkins using redwood forests to evolve business models.

Should the Eastgate Building be a Lung?

We've all seen or used one of these images (I'm guilty), but perhaps we didn't really know what we were comparing?

In a poorly titled paper, “Beyond Biomimicry“, researchers dive into the Eastgate Building case study to analyse it from a biological perspective. The insights are fascinating as the research of J Scott Turner and Rupert C Soar suggest the termite mound might not be functioning the way it does due to temperature management, but rather to encourage the flow of oxygen. In other words, it is not a passive heat exchanger, as much as an extension of the organisms’ lungs.

Turner and Soar’s research process is fascinating as it clearly outlines why the Eastgate building is like a termite mound, and then why it is NOT. While they suggest the next step is to move beyond biomimicry, I argue it is in fact time to move further “into” biomimicry. And we need more researchers like Turner and Soar to help designer’s understand what we’ve missed.

Perhaps it is even common knowledge to biologists that a termite mound functions like a lung, but for designer’s who have only “discovered” ant hills through comparative diagrams to the Eastgate architecture, this is eye opening.

Note: I really recommend the paper for some fascinating insights and quotes such as these in the final discussion:

Indeed, the possibilities may be more than large: they may be vast. This is because the termite mound is not simply a structural arena for interesting function. It is itself a function, sustained by an ongoing construction process that reflects the physiological predilections of the myriad agents that build and maintain it. The mound, in short, is the embodiment of the termites’ “extended physiology” …

Iterative Research = Iterative Design

Does any designer out there understand stigmergy? Image from J Scott Tuner and Rupert C Soar - Figure 9 from excellent paper available by clicking the image above.

I love this paper on many levels, but primarily because it fuels an iterative design process. This paper allows designers to look at successful projects such as Eastgate and go further. As pointed out in the paper, there is a lot of room for improvement. Our buildings do not “breathe” like lungs and they are not living, adapting structures. The opportunity exists now for a designer to begin to unwrap the complex diagrams of stigmergy and translate them into a building’s program and construction.

I want more research papers into biomimicry case studies that follow the process of J Scott Turner and Rupert C Soar that discuss:

1. How is this [insert case study here] like the natural model(s)?
2. How is this [case study] not like the natural model(s)?

In my ideal world, this would fuel design projects that would experiment and apply the subsequent insights of biological systems that would in turn encourage further scientific research. This is not a step beyond biomimicry, but actually genuine integration of the biological research into design process. And it is not impossible to imagine, considering the diversity of information and interest on termite mounds  stirred up by the Mick Pearce and OVE Arup; designers and engineers.

Image from: Living Labs - Intriguing image makes me want to know more... anyone out there with clues?

The Home Genome is an intriguing project at the MIT Living Labs that looks fascinating, but is very light on for details.

I was hoping someone out there might know a little more about this project and have some info they could share? I’m very interested in the positive aspects of mass customization and the possibilities inherent in adaptable design. The Living Labs appear to be a treasure trove of projects, but I’m not quite sure how to get to the meat.