In general, drawing inspiration from nature for design is more of an artistic approach than a technical one. And yet, the living has been able to imagine sober and efficient designs that can largely inspire industrial design!
From design to function, nature in full form!
Biomimetic design: a stunning structure-function combination
We used to say that biomimicry consists of drawing inspiration from the know-how of living beings, developed through 3.8 billion years of evolution, to design new technologies. Although the term design literally translates to “to conceive”, in its current French usage “design” rather refers to work on forms or appearance, often for aesthetic purposes. But in its original English meaning, “design” does include work on form, including technical work! The link between design and technology then appears much more clearly. But how does biomimicry help us create innovative designs that perform better?
In reality, it is simplistic to want to split form and function. And nature has understood this! The use of particular forms to carry out biological functions is omnipresent in living things. This structure-function combination is essential for plants and animals to survive: natural selection has thus eliminated the least efficient designs during the evolutionary process. What is more, living organisms cannot rely on a wide variety of methods to perform their essential functions: no complex chemistry, no strong source of heat, little electricity, a low diversity of materials available... In a nutshell, the many shapes and structures all respond to a variety of functions, and this with little diversity of base materials!
Thus, nature provides us with a pool of smart solutions, based largely on efficient structures and designs. Biomimicry was then able to exploit these designs when our modern technologies reached their limits. The classic biomimetic examples of the lotus leaf, the scales of the shark, the burdock or the kingfisher clearly demonstrate this affinity between biomimicry and design by linking structure and function.
The bird of paradise, a flower on our windows?
The bird of paradise is another lesser-known example of a structure-function combination in life. Don't be fooled by its name, this "bird" is actually a plant native to southern Africa! Its flower has the particularity of presenting long slender blue-purple petals, which serve as perches for birds that come to feed on nectar. The petals bend under the weight of the bird, and their gutter design then opens, revealing the stamen and depositing the pollen on the visitor's feet. This is how the bird of paradise spreads its pollen to reproduce.
We can clearly see the double function of the design of these petals: firstly their elongated shape encourages birds to land on them, but above all this “gutter” design which opens mechanically under bending only exposes the pollen in time. Useful ! This petal design that opens and closes with a simple flex inspired a “Flectofin” mechanical flap design by the University of Stuttgart, which is notably employed in the One Ocean Thematic Pavilion during Expo 2012 Yeosu.
One Ocean pavilion by soma architecture. The front can be opened and closed thanks to a shutter design inspired by the bird of paradise.
© soma architecture © Kim Yong-Kwan
Bolder designs thanks to biomimetic innovations
If biomimicry allows us to imagine new designs combining structure and function, it can also allow us to push back our technical limits to explore ever more free designs!
Lightweight design: the Iron Lady and her femur
From the 12th century, the Gothic ogive and its famous pointed arch gradually replaced the rounded Romanesque vault and made it possible to build larger and brighter cathedrals. Progress in lightweight design, i.e. the mass-strength compromise of structures, has thus made it possible to create new architectures. Similarly, the development of metallurgy and then alloys gave rise to modern skyscrapers.
Comparison between a rounded Romanesque vault and a pointed pointed arch vault. © Wikimedia Commons
And that's good, living beings specialize in lightweight design! After all, what species doesn't benefit from being both tough and light to protect itself or flee? Even trees have to carry their branches to stretch far enough to catch the light. Our own bones, thanks to their porous structure, are a marvel of mechanical resistance: they are about 10 times stronger than concrete! Thus the bones, and the femur in particular, whose shape helps to better distribute the compressive stresses, inspired Maurice Koechlin for the design of the Eiffel Tower. Biomimicry has thus enabled the Iron Lady to be the tallest tower in the world for more than 40 years. Little anecdote: the structure of the Eiffel Tower is so airy that it is lighter than the cylinder of air that contains it!
Since then, new lighter alloys have made it possible to push the architectural limits even further. Moreover, various recent works demonstrate that biomimicry still has its full role to play in terms of lightweight design. We then understand why architects are increasingly embarking on bio-inspired designs!
User experience: knock on wood?
More recently, the company Woodoo has created a very special material that may allow us to rethink the user experience (UX design) of certain everyday products. Indeed, thanks to its process, the company is able to produce a “transparent wood” very useful for imagining camouflaged screens!
The material being compatible with tactile systems, it could be used in the future in car designs or in home automation for example!
Design and colors: 50 shades of butterfly
We already told you about it in this article, but color can be used for a wide variety of purposes in life. In humans, the color of our hair or our skin comes from a pigment: melanin. But other colors, especially blue, do not exist in pigment form! However, we find blue in a lot of species such as the peacock, the Morpho butterfly or some tarantulas.
In reality, the color of these species is said to be structural, because it actually comes from complex phenomena of optical interference which are due to the very structure of the feathers, scales or hair of these species! These interferences prevent the reflection of certain colors and reinforce that of a particular color: in this case blue.
By reproducing this phenomenon, certain companies such as Cypris Materials create paints which, while drying, produce the appropriate structures to create these interferences. And of course, we are not limited to blue! Ideal for colorful designs without chemicals!
Generative design: building inspired by the living
Another way of combining biomimicry and design consists in reproducing the iterative approach with which living things evolve towards viable solutions. The development of additive manufacturing techniques also facilitates the use of these generative design methods.
Design by algorithm, how does it work?
Have you ever drawn rosettes with a compass? To do this, it is enough to follow simple rules: we draw a first circle, then we draw arcs of circles of the same radius whose center is located on the initial circle. This is an example of generative design that is to say a design created from a set of precise and repeatable rules.
This type of shape can therefore be very easily generated by computer! It is thus possible to impose any design rules and then automatically create several shapes that respect these rules. Combined with simulations (for example mechanical), we can then quickly test all these shapes and select one (for example the most resistant). It is even possible to use finer optimization techniques to explore different designs more quickly and efficiently!
And biomimicry in all this? Well, it can intervene in two main ways:
First, it can allow you to imagine the rules to be used to create a design that solves a given problem: this is called heuristics. For example, taking inspiration from the division into branches of trees can help create effective shapes to support a heavy structure with a small footprint. This is how Stuttgart airport was designed, for example!
In a more abstract way, how to explore different designs in an intelligent way to quickly obtain the most effective solution possible. We then enter the field of bio-inspired algorithms, which would deserve an article on its own!
Today, by misuse of language, generative design often refers to the fact of using algorithmic methods to create forms and solve an engineering problem. The method thus recalls the evolution of species and its iterative approach. In addition, the forms obtained by generative design are often much more complex than those designed by hand, and can "grow" to meet specific constraints in the way of life!
A blob and a bone are on a plane…
We have already mentioned the incredible properties of bones in terms of lightweight design. These performances have inspired Airbus to design lighter porous partitions for their A320s. But the most interesting is the way these partitions were designed. You guessed it: by generative design!
The idea is simple: we draw a mesh of straight lines that connect the edges of the partition and we try to remove as much as possible in our final design, without degrading the mechanical performance of the part, a bit like a game of Mikado! How ? Inspired by the blob, Physarum polycephalum by its Latin name, a unicellular species capable of exploring its environment in search of food, thus creating complex but optimized networks between different sources. This fascinating species is capable of creating efficient and resilient architectures, even though it does not even have a brain! If you want more information, we recommend this ARTE documentary with researcher Audrey Dussutour.
Thus, the blob can be used to connect different points on the outline of the partitions (the “food sources”) with the smallest possible set of lines. By building their bulkhead design from this set of straight beams, themselves porous like bones, Airbus has thus reduced the weight of this part by nearly 30kg (i.e. 45% of the initial weight)! Enough to save 465,000 tons of CO2 every year.
Several partition designs from a set of initial lines. Their distribution is inspired by the exploration of the environment by the blob. © Airbus & David Benjamin/The Living
Conclusion
Thus, it is obvious that biomimicry is an essential tool for thinking up new designs that are more efficient, more ecological and more original, in particular through the use of bio-inspired generative design algorithms. Drawing inspiration from the living can also pave the way for more disruptive designs, which open up new possibilities in terms of aesthetics, interactivity, functionality, etc. Do you understand why we are fans of it at Bioxegy?