“...viewing the natural world as separated from humans is not only ethically problematic but empirically false”
Intro: Designing across Biological Scales called forth for the class to reexamine their relationship with nature as a source of learning about themselves and their connection to the earth and its creatures. Supplanting a human-centred approach to design with a life-centred one, the team was introduced to Biomimicry frameworks which enriched their design process with the knowledge of nature’s strategies, non-human mentors and most interestingly, the reframing of design principles by asking the question “How might nature ____?” filled in with the verb best suited for the objective of the design/idea/process.
Brief: Given the brief of choosing a space in the local context and analysing its current use by our species and other forms of life, the teams were asked to propose ways to reimagine, redesign or modify the space, or object or service in that habitat, to accommodate at least one interspecies collaboration. All the while prioritising diversity, resource efficiency and balance in the ecosystem of choice.
Upon identifying the gardening patch in the school’s premises as the space to design for, the team collected soil samples around the valley which showed varying levels of health when observed with the naked eye and later, under the microscope. A eureka moment struck when
Shared needs: Metabolism, collaborative networks / symbiosis, homeostasis, shelter, search for food (sunlight), movement, mating and rearing progeny, senses and communication, attack and defence
HMW: How might we provide temporary refuges to mitigate the effects of the CIID’s machineries in the soil that earthworm’s inhabit. HMN How might nature mitigate/dampen/dissipate/regulate vibration?
Ideation:
Natural ecosystems thrive on diversity and shared purposes.
In biomimicry we do not force a design into a context, we do it backwards.
We work and become experts in context and mentors and then we decide what a design/idea/process will give to that ecosystem, niche, habitat and how it will interact with it .
Validate mentors:
-Nature
-Primary Literature, Secondary Literature
-Researchers, colleagues, etc
-Web, ask nature.org
-Engaging with biologists or locals having them around in the design tables is useful
