Lynn Van der Stocken
3rd year Interior and environmental design
18 November 2010
On going deeper on the influence of fair trade on design, I am now basing on how nature influences design. Of knowing how hand craft and producing in a kind of natural way have a great impact on people’s buying behaviour, it would be maybe interesting of knowing how people got attracted by the knowledge that products are made in a fair way. This producing in a fair way is not only because of helping developing countries for a better life, but also for helping the world out of producing everything with machines, in factories etc. This could have a great effect on the nature. People will use more natural products. Mostly we will think “this is not good for the environment, because we hurt the nature by taking their trees to make f.e. Paper out of it.” Scientifically seen, it is certainly better for the world we live in. If we don’t produce out of nature, we will use materials as plastic which we can’t always recycle and have to use a lot of energy to create it.
“Nature inspired products give us an opportunity to recycle and in the same way to discover our environment as an element we can use as an inspiration.”
Lynn Van der Stocken, 2010
The world is becoming more and more an inspiration in everything we do. We always need sources and feedback in that thing we want to know more about. Nature was, and is, becoming even a greater part of our life then it already was. It is all around us. We can see it, touch it, smell it and we know it has a lot to offer. Without nature we would not be what we are now.
As a continuation of this introduction you will find how nature has an effect on our way of thinking and experiencing. The first source refers to an article based on the book ‘Innovation inspired by nature, Biomimicry’ written by Janine Benyus. Afterwards a book, made out of trees, called ‘the nature of design’ written by Peg Faimon and John Weigand, together with the book ‘Structure in nature is a strategy for design’ of Peter Pearce, will become the next part of my journey through the research of this topic.
Innovation inspired by nature, Biomimicry. (article)
This book, written by biologist Janine Benyus, focusses on a new incoming term ‘biomimicry’. It is a science that studies the best ideas coming out of nature used on design. These ideas will be an influence on the innovative and sustainable solutions for industry and research development. As reading the article, it will have a big impact on my further research on nature inspired design. The article tells us how nature became an inspiration for miss Benyus and show us particular inventions of it so far.
Nature is one of the biggest elements through time. As one of the first phenomenons in the world, it is a crucial subject for every human to live and create. Nature teaches us something that we never can teach as good. Actually we are doing already 3.8 billion years of research on it. Nature has become a high quality source for efficiency and management problems as we know them now.
As biomimicry has become a main source on innovative designs, we can find a lot of evidence already by just looking around in our own environment. Although how does it has an effect on the world over a long term? The author is telling us that Benyus refers to solutions of nature we already have sorted out, but still can give us an alternative way of thinking. Nature is a source we always reuse. It offers so much we never can get rid of the idea of creating something based on nature.
“Benyus is been seen as one of the world's most imaginative person in the field of environmental development and restoration.”
Paul Hawken, Natural capital institute
People more and more want to protect the nature instead of ruining it. Quite normal idea you would think. Still we only seem to take care of nature by moderating energy or recycling. Although there is a need of new and sustainable solutions based on nature. What is good about nature as an inspiration is the fact that it is not just a theory, but that it is already there. We just need the fascination to use it and to be inventive with the way we want to use it.
As a link to designing the article shows some good examples making it really clear that we can't miss nature as inspiration for designing. For example; the invention of velcro, a two-side fastener based on all the little hooks and loops you find in the structure of cockleburs, is now a daily use. Also one of the fastest train in the world its nose cone is based on the shape of a kingfisher bird. Also the serration feathers of the bird, which produces noise, had an impact on designing this Japanese train.
The little hooks and loops of cockleburs[online] http://tropicaldesign.org/biomimicry/tnep_biomimicry_000.pdf
Structure in nature is a strategy for design (book)
As this book refers to research dating back to 1958, this information could be really interesting for the development of my own research. The advantage about using books as a source is that it contains information that can go back for several years, years in which we were not born yet. The writer himself, Peter Pearce, developed from an unconscious student to and award winning man, inspired by many designers of that time, studying the structurally autonomous, geometrically adaptable cellular systems. In his book he especially directs to three-dimensional spatial systems related to structural and architectural design.
“We need to develop a building strategy with which diversity and change can be accomplished by modular systems which are efficient in their use of natural material and energy resources.”
Peter Pearce,1990
Pearce mentions about the minimum inventory/ maximum diversity system. A system that explains how rubrics lead to a maximization of different, structural forms. As they are in constantly growth, these rubrics always got a definition of change. By comparing the different graphic examples in nature, Pearce came to the conclusion of dividing these examples in groups that will tend to either the minimum inventory or the maximum diversity principle. For example he refers to a snowflake. While doing research to the structure of this element, it is interesting to note that each individual snowflake exhibits a high degree of differentiation within its own form.
A typical leaf structure swing inspired on the structure of a leaf
As geometry is seen as a structure, Plato was the first person to explore the possibility of developing an inventory of basic geometric shapes. The philosopher/ scientist became the base of Pearces’ study. His theory about different forms recognisable in the structure of an organism, changed our world. The build up of natural elements gave us as designer the opportunity to develop an other way of thinking. If it is a triangle, a cube or more volumetric regions, the structure of an object is a further study on the construction of a design.
This source is really related to the deeper meaning of nature. As the previous article showed more information about the impact that nature in general has on design (referring to a certain term), this book really teaches us something of ‘the inside of nature’, the inspiration we can not see with the normal eye. This makes nature even more interesting. As said before nature is already all around us, but there is even more!
Structure in nature is a strategy for design, 1990, by Peter Pearce
The nature of design (book)
“A design inspired on nature is a second nature.”
Peg Faimon and John Weigand, 2004
The habit of design creates a certain control or order and will grow in meanwhile to a certain unity. Sameness is most of the time seen as ‘boring’. We can not loose the visual interest and variety in design neither in nature. The simpleness of nature shows us a good example of variety in every kind. Environment always changes, so do we. We are used to the change, but not to the overwhelming of change, when variety develops in chaos. Although variety is no crime, people see it as an unusual turn in their environment and so it becomes a strange object in their non-chaotic environment. Variety is unique, but is seen a lot as ‘too much’. This theory shows us that nature is a common structured being as is architecture. To bring these two elements together we have to create a unity, finding a balance between existing and creating, producing a visual and physical connection.
“Every animal leaves traces of what it was; a man alone leaves traces of what he has created.”
Jacob Bronowski
Another interesting subject was the balance between oldness and the constantly changing space. As an old barn is getting older and becomes useless, it gets back a certain charm that fits into the frame of nature. Somewhere it is still a contrast of architecture and design, but meanwhile it has so much more to offer as it becomes a useless object placed in a field.
As conclusion nature is not only an influence on our way of designing, but became also a part of our designing. As we see architecture inspired on elements out of nature, architecture lives in nature too and
plays with its environment to become an interaction of it.
Leafhouse, the undercurrent architects
The nature of design, 2004, by Peg Faimon & John Weigand
Related images
Lily lamp, Janne Kyttanen
Nest chair
2 examples of hangers inspired on nature
