Bio Design: A New Design Paradigm?
BOOK REVIEW
Bio Design. Nature. Science. Creativity.
William Myers (Editor), Paola Antonelli (Forward)
288 pp. | The Museum of Modern Art, New York | 2012
In recent years, interest in biomimicry — the activity of seeking design inspiration from nature — has increased dramatically. Biomimicry has inspired innovative design solutions for products, works of architecture, advanced high-speed trains and even structures for commercial aircraft. While biomimicry can be expected to continue to provide inspiration for innovators in many fields, according to William Myers book, biomimicry could possibly be replaced by a new design paradigm: biodesign.
Biodesign, the theme of William Myers’ recent book, differs from biomimicry in that biodesign seeks not only derive inspiration from natural sources, but also to incorporate living materials into the design of products, buildings and structures. According to Myers,
“Unlike biomimicry, cradle to cradle, and the popular but frustratingly vague ‘green design’, biodesign refers specifically to the incorporation of living organisms as essential components, enhancing the function of the finished work.”
Myers suggests that the growing connections between living organisms and designers through biodesign represent a new design paradigm. Biodesign appears to open up vast new possibilities for creating new and innovative products, buildings and experiences:
“Ultimately, design’s embrace of nature — even coupled with the inevitable hubris that we can redesign and outdo it — is long overdue and the most promising way forward.”
Myers also attempts to place the emerging techniques of biodesign within an appropriate historical context. For example, he contrasts the new techniques and technologies of biodesign with the use of manmade materials during and following the Industrial Revolution. He also compares the emergence and growth of biodesign with the worldwide adoption of the Internet, Web and Web-related standards such as HTML, which resulted in the Digital Revolution.
Bio Design provides a categorized portfolio of recent biodesign projects, based on an exhibition held at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The book contains a forward by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture & Design and Director of Research & Development at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
This is followed by the author’s own forward and a section titled, Beyond Biomimicry, in which Myers provides a detailed overview of the field of biodesign. Within this section, Myers goes to considerable lengths to differentiate biodesign from biomimicry.
The book appears to suggest that biomimicry is a much more limited process. Biomimicry seeks to derive design inspiration from natural forms and processes but results in designs that, while inspired by natural forms, are nevertheless created using contemporary manmade materials within the context of contemporary industrial and digital society.
Biodesign, it seems, is a much more complex process in which inspiration is also derived from nature, but the designs created with this paradigm either incorporate or are created from actual living natural materials, ranging from trees to bacteria. Biodesign, Myers argues, seeks to “bring the material existence of artificial environments and objects into a sustainable harmony with nature, a state upon which everything ultimately depends.”
BIO DESIGN EXAMPLES
To help illustrate this point, the book contains a substantial portfolio of biodesign projects, ranging from the highly practical to the highly speculative, is provided within four subsequent sections:
- The Architectural Hybrid: Living Structures and New Ecological Integrations
- Ecological Object Engineering: Replacing Industrial and Mechanical Processes
- Experimental Functions: Speculative Objects, Teaching Tools and Provocations
- Dynamic Beauty: Artwork Crawling off the Auction Block
Some of the examples provided within the first four chapters are relatively practical. For example, Bio Milano is a project aimed at “reforesting and rehabilitating” the city of Milan, Italy. One building within this ambitious initiative, the Bosco Verticale or Vertical Forest, is already under construction. This design of this new residential apartment tower incorporates a dense forest of trees and vegetation.
Also related to building are two potentially useful products now being investigated: BioBricks and BioConcrete. BioBricks are created using sand particles, bacteria and other elements in place of conventional energy-intensive and polluting brick-making methods. However, the technique for creating these bricks is not presently suited for large-scale production and issues involving a toxic by-product, ammonia, have yet to be resolved.
BioConcrete would utilize bacteria and calcium lactate to create a self-repairing concrete that could preserve the life of a concrete building or structure. By making concrete structures last longer, the need to manufacture additional concrete (an energy intensive and polluting activity) could be reduced.
Another concept, BioCouture, would utilize bacteria to create a natural and safely recyclable leather-like material with a reduced environmental impact for use in clothing. Bioluminescent devices, including “living lighting” could supplement or replace electric lighting in some areas. Creative use of bacteria and other elements could be combined to create “living, dynamic graphic design”. The many biodesign projects presented in Myers’ book are highly creative and thought-provoking.
In addition to more “concrete” projects, many other projects described in the book, however, are highly speculative. A number of these projects would utilize genetically modified organisms (such as genetically modified bioluminescent trees) with, at present, unknown consequences. The point of these projects is to showcase some of the creative future potentials of biodesign.
The fifth chapter, Profiling Programs and Collaborations: Consilience in the 21st Century, highlights select schools and organizations involved in biodesign-related activities. A final section, Interviews, contains interviews with nine individuals involved in biodesign from areas including academia, design and the arts.
SOME QUESTIONS
Although not explicitly covered within the book, some additional questions naturally arise:
- As biomimicry initiatives continue to evolve and increasingly take into consideration energy efficiency, recycling, use of new materials, and more, will the lines between biomimicry and biodesign become increasingly blurred?
- Will biodesign have major impacts on contemporary design education?
- What are the implications of biodesign with regard to the composition of future product design, architectural design and engineering teams?
- In the future, will substantial design education be included within scientific, medical and engineering fields?
- Do the technical complexities associated with some biodesign projects (for example, the use of bacteria or genetically modified organisms) point to a future in which designers could become substantially more dependent on technical and scientific experts?
THE HUMAN FACTOR: EMPATHY AND INTENTION
Although Myers suggests that biodesign represents a paradigm shift for design and innovation, he also wisely suggests that biodesign alone will not be sufficient to solve many of today’s challenges:
“Aspects of inherited, dysfunctional impulses such as neo-colonialism, a rush to change for its own sake, myopic pursuit of profit, and media-centric theatricality out of proportion with practical potential, will persist as design develops new intersections with the life sciences.”
Myers also suggests that:
“One goal of this book is to incite discussion and careful consideration of the potential unintended consequences of biodesign, something that is too often overlooked in the breathless optimism that characterizes discussion of this field today.”
Hopefully, Bio Design will help to inspire designers to create new products, buildings and structures that work with nature, rather than against it. As with any design-related endeavor, the empathy and intentions of the creators are essential in determining an initiative’s ultimate success or failure commercially and in terms of its impacts on society and the natural environment.
RECOMMENDATION
Bio Design was first published in 2012. Since that time, interest in the field has grown considerably. Annual events such as the Bio Design Challenge for art and design students, and The International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (the latter being held at Stanford University later this year) are helping to build additional interest in and awareness of this emerging discipline.
Myers’ book provides readers with a comprehensive, balanced and insightful overview of the biodesign field. It provides interesting and thought-provoking reading for designers, architects and other innovators who wish to expand their awareness of the creative possibilities of designing with living nature.
SOME RECENT ARTICLES ON BIODESIGN
A Guide To The $13.4 Billion Biodesign Industry (Fast Company)
11 Products That Forecast the Future of Biodesign (Architizer)
designboom’s TECH predictions for 2017: biodesign in architecture (DesignBoom)
