BIOMIMICRY

• Biomimicry - the design process that looks to nature for inspiration in creating solutions to improve the quality of life.
• Janine Benyus - She coined the term biomimicry from a Greek word.
• Biomimicry is from the Greek word bios meaning life, and mimesis meaning to imitate.
• Other terms used for biomimicry are bionics and bio-inspiration.
• Leonardo da Vinci - Looked to birds to study why and how they fly, which then inspired their designs of flying machines.
• Lotus Leaf - has a unique capability of cleaning itself. Water forms beads on the leaf's bumpy surface and collects dirt along its path.
• The concept of sustainability is best understood when you realize that nature is about balance.
• Janine Benyus - is a pioneer of the biomimicry movement. She has jelped many companies and institutions develop products and strategies based on nature's "vest practices."
• Mercedes-Benz Technology Centre & DaimlerChrysler Research - their engineers worked for their model, tropical boxfish.
• Boxfish Car - this prototype was tested in a wind tunnel.
• The boxfish car achieved a wind drag coefficient of 0.19.
• Spinnerets - these are tubes at the back of the spider's abdomen, the spider spins a web to trap insects.
• Solar Chargers - stores solar energy by mimicking photosynthesis.
• Chicken feathers and hair clippings - were used to alleviate the country's worst oil spill.
• Philip McCrory - a hairdresser from Alabama in the US, who observed how oil clung to the fur of sea otters after an oil spill.
• Tubercles - bumps that can be found in the flippers of a whale, which help the whale to maneuver by influencing the drag and lift of the whale.
• Boxfish is the inspiration of boxfish car.
• Spider Web is the inspiration of fishing nets.
• Photosynthesis is the inspiration of solar chargers.
• Whale Fins are the inspiration of wind turbine blades.
• Engineering Designs

  1. Boxfish-Inspired Car
  2. Spider Web-Inspired Fishing Nets
  3. Photosynthesis-Inspired Solar Charges
  4. Whale Fins-Inspired Wind Turbine Blades
• To improve communication and performance (4)

  1. Cooperation and Trust
  2. Shared Leadership
  3. Maximum Team size
  4. Effective Communication: Shout and Whisper
• In shared leadership, the lead bird is at the tip of the v-shaped formation.
• Effective communication in nature is classified as a shout when, through one act, all members are informed.
• A whisper where a message is transmitted on a one-on-one basis, as in ant touching another.
• Animals secrete chemicals called pheromones to communicate a warning or mating desires.
• Karl von Frisch - an Australian zoologist, received a Nobel Peace Prize for his discovery of the waggle dance.
• Waggle Dance - done by a scouting bee to communicate the location and distance of a food source to other bees in the colony.
• Landscape Architecture - involves the stewardship of land by planning and designing spaces.
• Gabrielle Victor A. Caballero - one of the resident landscape architects for the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.
• Doha, Qatar in the Middle East - where a cactus-inspired building.
• Smart Shades - opens and closes depending on the intensity of the sun.
• Design Against the Elements - global architectural design challenge, was launched to provide green solutions to the climate change-related problems.
• Architect Romolo Valentino Nati - he led the architectural group and won a Special Energy Award for its energy-efficient design.
• The group used coral system as a morel for cities and harmonious dwellings. It applied principles of green passive designs to maximize the energy benefits of the building while maintaining cost effectiveness.
• Green Active Designs - refers to sustaibsustainable building that have advanced features.
• Green Passive Designs - buildings designed in a way that maximizes the use of natural and renewable sources of energy such as the sun and wind.
• Principles Behind the Winning Design

  1. Corals as Inspiration
  2. Geometric Design and Disaster-Resilient Features
• Corals - inspire the design for a sustainable community.
• Corals are colonies of organized identical units called polyps that grow in marine ecosystems such as those found in Philippine seas.