What is Biomimicry?

With a look of concentration usually only seen on college students working on their thesis, my younger cousin would try to fit the yellow wooden cube into the round hole of the shape box. Designing without using nature as inspiration is similar to trying to fit the wrong shape into the circular hole. This is where Biomimicry comes in. Essentially, Biomimicry is the emulation of nature to solve human problems. Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, states that “In a society accustomed to dominating or "improving" nature, this respectful imitation is a radically new approach, a revolution really.” And the revolution has already started to sprout in various parts of the world. In Harare, Zimbabwe, the country's largest office and shopping complex, designed by Mick Pearce and engineers at Arup Associates, was designed to mimic the way that termites in Africa construct their mounds to maintain a constant temperature. The building, called the Eastgate Centre, uses air circulation similar to the termites. The critters constantly open and close vents throughout the mound to manage air. This method uses less than 10% of the energy used in similar sized buildings but most importantly, according to architectsforpeace.org, the owner saved $3.5 million of energy costs in the fist five years. In 2004, as stated by www.worldchanging.com, Duke University in conjunction with researchers at West Chester and the U.S. Naval Academy found that “the bumpy "tubercles" along the front edge of humpback whale pectoral fins cause them to be more efficient and effective than anything in use on today's airplanes.” Tunnel tests concluded that flippers with bumps performed about eight percent better than smooth flippers, withstood stall at a forty percent steeper wind angle, and thirty-two percent lower drag. The bumps can be implemented on airplanes, not only using less fuel but would make the the plane more maneuverable. So where do you go from here? Start looking around at what nature who, after 3.8 billion years of research and development, has managed to develop solutions to human issues in design and please, stop trying to push the wooden cylinder into the square-shaped hole.