Up-Cycle like a Nudibranch
Posted: September 24, 2011 Filed under: Biology Research | Tags: biology and design research, biology translated for design, bridging biology research to design, co-opting in nature, infinitely upgradeable, nematocysts and nudibranchs, recycling in nature, sea anemone eating nudibranch, up-cycling in biology, visual communication 8 CommentsThe humble nudibranch, or sea slug, could be an incredible inspiration for how designers view recycling and up-cycling, and possibly even concepts around regenerative design. It’s taken me a little while, since Tim first told me this story, but here goes my first real attempt to put my money where my mouth is around the concept of visual communication in biomimicry. Looking forward to any feedback and ideas…
Nematocyst Up-cycling
Image 1 - Anemone
Image 2 Nematocysts
Re-Cycling, Up-Cycling, Bio-Cycling?
Posted: August 19, 2011 Filed under: Biology Research, Project: Science Dialogue | Tags: bridging biology research to design, closed loop product design, infinitely upgradeable, recycling in nature, up-cycling in biology, up-cycling in design, upcycling in design, upcycling in nature 3 Comments
Google "recycled furniture" and you get some weird experiments, most of them a play on the concept of recycling like this chair made of foliage; "Commissioned by the Design Museum for the Designers in Residence programme, Harvest is a reseach project using London's flowering foliage as a raw material for furniture production. Installed in the Design Museum Tank, Jan-March 2010, and at Sawaya & Moroni, Milan April 2010"
Huge thanks to the mighty fine brains of Tim and Peter, their comments to my last post are incredibly insightful and offer a lot for designers to chew on (yes I did throw a pun in there, sorry).
I want to hear some more design voices – so I thought I would begin to articulate how I am interpreting the information flow from a design perspective and see what bounces back. How can we reverse engineer these biological models into ambitious design ideas?
Nutrient Cycles in Nature
I have a very basic understanding of nutrient cycles, and I’m likely not the only designer out there with these limitations. We’ve all seen those simple diagrams showing water flowing through a landscape, or the how nitrogen, carbon or some other basic element moves through the different layers of an ecosystem. We’ve all heard of decomposers and their vital roles. But any discussion at a molecular level is usually pretty vague.
The more I am learning in this area, the more I realize how important these principles may be for designers.
Every Organism is a Recycling Plant
Scenario B.5: Mass Customization – Unique Solutions
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Personal Exploration | Tags: infinitely upgradeable, mass customization, scenarios of sustainability, strategic sustainability Leave a commentOne product for one person. A solution for every personal need.
Scenarios of Sustainability for Design
Nobody knows... the troubles we've seen...
If you could make the perfect digital camera. Would you need a new one? If you played an active role in the design and creation of your winter coat, would it last more than one season? If the couch was uniquely and individually yours, would it make the trip to your new home intact, rather than left by the side of the road in anticipation for something “new” from IKEA?
Mass customization and personal fabrication is becoming a thing of the present. It is being written about aggressively in WIRED magazine and is a very real movement. Design is becoming more democratic, the tools available to more people and the process of turning idea from concept to reality is being fuelled by emerging entrepreneurial models and micro-financing.
"The Oona is a simple, versatile smart phone stand that can do as much in the physical world as your phone can do in the virtual." Just what we need...
Does this mean we will have better stuff that will last longer, meet more individual needs, and slow down cycles of consumption?
Upgradable Digital Camera
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Scenarios of Sustainability | Tags: infinitely upgradeable, strategic design, strategic sustainability, upgradeable design Leave a commentWhat happens if your $32,000 camera becomes obsolete in a couple of months?
The beautiful Hasselblad H4D-200MS
While most of us are fussing about whether we really need 16 megapixels to take great party photos for facebook, there are some pretty serious photographers demanding a heck of a lot more from their machines. Hasselblad uses some amazing multishot technology, turning a 50 Megapixel camera into a 200 megapixel camera!!!
While impressive, the real story is… what if you had forked out an enormous sum of money for the previous H4D-50MS sans the super ultra level of pixel mania? Ship it back to them, part with a few extra thousand dollars and they will add some hardware, fiddle with the software, and send you back a super, duper version of the greatest camera you had ever owned.
Upgrades! On digital cameras?
Scenario B: Endless Upgrades – The Iterative Solution
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Scenarios of Sustainability | Tags: endless upgrades, evolving design, hackable car design, infinitely upgradeable, strategic consumption, strategic sustainability Leave a commentScenarios of Sustainability within design.
What if our products never became waste?
Infinitely upgradable, endless lifecycle, constant innovation growth and evolution. Closed loops of technology cycles that are broken down, and remade into the latest generation of must have features.
Yves Behar's hackable car... cute?
What would your cell phone look like if it was infinitely upgradable?
If the high energy, high toxicity components, namely the electronic core, was re-usable and upgradable, then this could be an interesting step forward. But perhaps the scale of product is too small for realistic exploration.
Bouncing Ideas 
Recent Comments