Co-creation with nature

‘Life can offer 3.8 billion years of well-adapted technology, perhaps we can learn something from it’…

This quote stuck with me after listening to Dayna Baumeister, co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild. She spoke at the TU Delft Alumni Symposium yesterday where we attended her exciting lecture ‘Innovation, Inspired by Nature’.

And did nature inspire us!  

For the ones among us that now think ‘bio-mi..-what’?? Biomimicry (from “bios” meaning life, and “mimesis” meaning to imitate) is, and here it comes: “a design principle that seeks sustainable solutions to human problems by consulting and emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies” (Yes, you may read it twice). Its goal is to create products, processes, and policies -new ways of living- that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.

The earth is a dynamic equilibrium and nature has learned to go with its flow. But we humans often forget that we are also part of nature, and therefore try to resist these dynamics. It would be wise to learn how to live with it. And that’s why the quote above stayed with me, that’s how we should do it: learn from the experts! Wait… where have I heard that before?

Oh, that’s it! - ’99.9% of the smartest people work for someone else, they might have some good ideas.‘ One of the main drivers for open innovation and co-creation; open up and make use of the existing knowledge out there. Involving nature’s genius shines a new light on this, but it’s the same basic idea. So why not co-create with nature?

For example, did you know a peacock does not create its color with pigments, but with its shape? The light shines in and bounces back through its layers, creating the intense colors we see. Perhaps this means there’s less need to use polluting pigments.. Or that the bumps (tubercles) on the edge of a whale’s fin, when mimicked in the design of an airplane wing, increased efficiency by 32%? Or that a duck cleans itself by removing the oil from its skin with its beak, but while doing this, the oil simultaneously makes its feathers soft and water resistant, and its beak nice and smooth. How’s that for effeciency!

Of course, before rushing into copying nature’s ingenious in everything, it requires some architectural, engineering and design-related translation. Not everything is more efficient, better or suitable for us to mimic, but as nature is there anyway, we might as well go outside and learn from it…

Let the summer begin!

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