ABSTRACT
Our approach to biomimicry seeks to expand on the most widely used applications of the discipline to design and architecture. Rather than mimicking or recreating nature through design, we draw primarily from the functional, or performative, aspects of nature and integrate those with the environmental context in which such aspects are found. The natural world informs design through a synthetic understanding of the adaptations an organism has to its environment and the relationship it has with other organisms in the ecosystem in which it is a part. Using this approach we can bring functionality to designed elements and thereby “inform the form.” The resulting project is not a direct translation from a particular organism, but is inspired by study of the function and its context within a natural system. Novel and unexpected forms consequently emerge from this explorative process. Though the primary driver of the design is function, form is certainly not forgotten as it constitutes a fundamental aspect of design. Humans are instinctively drawn to the complex, diverse and elegant forms from the natural world. Through these projects, by beginning the
process with the performative aspects of nature, we attempt to ultimately achieve beauty. In this way, nature is a great model.
