Biology to Design
Tica Lubin
MASD - Biomimetic Design - SD-6610-21-F21 - B2D spiral -5.2
The Biomimicry Design Sprial walks designers through a nature inspired process starting with identifying functions and conditions and working though translate, discover, abstract, emulate and evaluate. Often times the spiral is repeated several times leading to new design discoveries. The final design ideas are evaluated against the Living Principles (Biomimicry Insitute)
This project takes 3 organisms through the design spiral 3x each: Torch/Cardon Cactus, Buffalo, Australian Ant Plant (Myrmecodia beccarii)
Torch or Cardon Cactus
Their heat-reflecting capacity is low, since their surface is greatly reduced so as to cut down on evaporation. Nature has solved the problem by equipping many cacti with cooling ribs. These shade the cactus’s surface against the scorching sun and simultaneously improve heat radiation. The alternating planes of light and shade of the vertical cooling ribs of the torch thistle produce rising and falling air currents, which improve heat radiation. And when the sun reaches its highest position, it hits the torch thistle from above, where it presents its smallest surface. A botanist discovered that torch thistles perish of burns when they are placed horizontally in the sun.” (Ask Nature)
Spiral 1 Discovery: Stay Cool
Abstract:
The method the cactus is using to stay cool is to have ribbed patterns that create shade and create alternating rise and falling currents which improve heat radiation. Because the ribs run vertically and it is a tall thin shape when the sun is at its hottest point mid-day it is hitting the least amount of surface area. Their spines create more surface area so that they can release heat and slow down rainwater flow.
Praire dogs also use a similar method of positioning and shape of burrow openings to create passive ventilation from wind energy by altering air pressure. As air flows across a surface, a gradient in flow speed forms, where air moves slower the closer it is to the surface. The prairie dog is able to take advantage of this gradient by building a mound with an elevated opening upwind and a mound with a lower opening downwind. Over the elevated opening, wind velocity is faster than it is over the lower opening, creating a local region of low pressure (following Bernoulli’s principle). The result of this difference in pressure between the two openings is one-way airflow through the burrow as air gets sucked into the lower opening and flows out the elevated one.(Ask Nature)
The patterns both of these organisms use varying surface levels to create pressure differences. This creates natural airflow as air moves between the different pressures.
Brainstorm:
Could this design of ribs to create varied temperatures to stay cool be applied to buildings, especially skyscrapers that are also tall and thin? After living in NYC and having walked many a blustery day through skyscraper-lined streets that act as wind tunnels, I think that if we added more texture to the outside of the buildings this would help to cool them. I wonder also what effect it would have on the streets below. Currently, the wind rushes down the buildings flat surfaces and blows through the streets. What effect would adding texture have as far as possibly reducing these gusts of winds, would seeds take place in new places, birds build nests in new places? Would the textures also slow down rainfall or could they be used to collect rain and reduce the sudden flooded streets that now occur during a heaving spring rain that then cause more garbage and pollution to travel out to the rivers and oceans through flooded drain pipes? I also wonder the effects of reflective glass that buildings have on their interior plus local exterior environment?
Emulate:
Buildings could be designed with ribbed texture incorporated into their outside surface. This could be especially beneficial to keep buildings cooler as well as help with structural integrity. This is possibly currently used in architectural design as far as structure but it is usually covered up by a smooth outer layer for aesthetics. By getting rid of that outer layer we would also reduce materials used in the project.
Evaluate:
Fitting form to Function, Free Energy, Shape Rather than Material
Spiral 2 Discovery: retain water
Abstract:
Desert plants need to conserve as much water as possible for survival during times where there’s no rain. Remember that it only rains once in a long while in the desert. For this reason, the plants only carry out the photosynthesis process at night. Temperatures are much cooler at night.
Photosynthesis needs sunlight. So how is the plant able to carry out the process if the stomata are only one during the night when there is no sunlight? Since it’s hot in the desert during the day, the cactus plant’s stomata only open up at night when temperatures are cooler, hence fewer chances of water loss. Scientists refer to the process of night photosynthesis as crassulacean acid. The stomata’s opening and closing work like clockwork. By dawn, the pores close, and automatically open at night. To further avoid water loss, the cactus stomata is very small. In addition, it’s found deep in the tissue as opposed to the surface, which would otherwise cause water loss. (Cactusway)
Brainstorm:
In the summer I open my windows at night to let cooler air in and then close them during the day to trap the cool air in the house. Could there be automatic vent systems like this designed for homes that open and close as air temperatures and pressures changes? Transpiration is the process by which water and minerals move through a plant, and the stomata are pores through which these exchanges happen, according to Wikipedia. The main function of the guard cells surrounding the stomata is to regulate the size of each stoma's opening in order to control the plant's rate of transpiration.
The guard cells cause the stomata to open any time the plant cell has accumulated high concentrations of potassium ions. The ions trigger the guard cells to swell, which opens each stoma by changing its shape. When the guard cells lose water, the stomata close to preserve water in the plant. (Reference). What if there could be some system that operates due to changes in pressure to open and close the ports so that the system does no use electricity.
Emulate:
Incorporate into buildings small openings in buildings that react to temperature changes to open and close. So in hot desert conditions, they would open during the day and close at night. They would have screens on them to keep out critters but would allow cool air to enter the building at night and then would close so that the cool air stays in during the day. This would be helpful in buildings where it is difficult to do this manually - maybe where people are not always there or where there is no option for windows.
Evaluate:
Using Benign Manufacturing, Integrates Cyclical Processes, Locally Attuned and Responsive
Spiral 3 Discover: retain water
Abstract:
The spines create a buffer that traps air around the spine. The air trapping is necessary for restricting airflow; otherwise, the water might escape from the plant in the process. The buffer contains moist air, and this plays a vital role in preventing water from evaporating from the plant in the hot desert heat. In desert there is often a dew or fog in the mornings. Once dew from the fog settles on the spine, it liquefies into the water and then drips on the ground below. The cactus roots then absorb this water to help nourish the plant and keep it alive. The spines also have a hierarchical groove structure. The unique grooves that help the cactus plants collect water. Shade provision to avoid the hot desert sun. The cactus spine may look like it can’t offer much shade because it has a thin radius. However, the needles have a dense population with a single plant having thousands of them, and this is for a reason. The dense population serves the purpose of covering as much surface area as possible. Therefore, the shade that these spines provide adds up to protect the plant from losing water. (Cactusway)
Camels : Because their fur stays dry to the touch, it used to be believed that camels didn’t sweat at all. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The unique interaction of their sweat and fur is the key to camels keeping cool.
Camels have sweat glands distributed throughout their skin, from which water removes body heat through evaporation, much as in humans. However, camel skin is also covered by thick fur––4 inches (10 cm) deep in places. This fur doesn’t impede the evaporation of water though. What it does do is insulate the camel from incoming heat.
This insulating power of the camel’s fur reduces the amount of heat transferred to the camel’s body from its hot ambient environment by three main mechanisms. The light color of a camel’s fur reflects light energy, reducing heat transfer to its skin by radiation. The trapped air in the camel’s fur functions as a thin material, with space between the individual molecules, minimizing heat transfer to the skin by conduction. Finally, the individual hairs of the camel’s fur impede the movement of air, reducing heat transfer to its skin by convection. (Ask Nature)
Brainstorm:
Could refrigerators mimic the air trapping and water retention effects of the spines and camels fur to keep things cooler? Could clothing be designed to mimic these systems and keep people cooler in hotter placers to reduce the need for air conditioning by a double layer clothing that absorbs sweat and protects from heat? How would you control odors?
Emulate:
Could refrigerators be redesigned to absorb the heat from their contents and turn that into a cool layer that protects from external heat? Could this design also interact with the external ambient temperature so that when people leave a home and there is nothing in the refrigerator and the house is left cooler the system moderates so that it is not working to keep the refrigerator as cold as it could normally do with food in it and in a hotter atmosphere.
Evaluate:
Leveraging Interdependence, Using benign manufacturing, Locally Attuned and Responsive
Buffalo
The buffalo move and forage in a way that helps to nourish new plant growth and soil biodiveristy. There’s ecological healing and the regeneration of the soil and grasslands and there’s healing and regeneration in terms of re-establishing local indigenous foods systems and improving physical health...Our approach goes beyond a limited definition of regenerative agriculture, which focuses on soil health, to regenerating communities, ways of life, and abundance…all of the things that were taken with the destruction of the buffalo herds.(Tanaka Fund)
Spiral Discover 1: nourish the land
Abstract:
The buffalo move and forage in a way that helps to nourish new plant growth and soil biodiveristy. Tanzania’s Serengeti Plain, grasses are subject to heavy foraging by some of the world’s most spectacular nomadic grazers–about 3 million individuals of twenty-seven species, including wildebeest, zebra, Thomson’s gazelle, buffalo, and topi. Samuel McNaughton of Syracuse University examined the impact of these grazers on grassland productivity over a number of years. He found that diversity was not linked to the most prolific productivity but rather to the most constant productivity. Specifically, good rains and moderate levels of grazing (rather than high plant diversity) produced the lushest grass crop. Nonetheless, the more diverse the plant community, the better it resisted losses to grazers, partly because the species-rich areas included a wide array of plants that certain grazers found unpalatable and therefore avoided eating. The species-rich grasslands also showed greater resilience, rebounding from the effects of grazing and recovering to a full standing crop more quickly at the onset of the rainy season.” (Ask Nature)
Brainstorm:
What if we diversified the species of animals that graze on an area together and then have mixed birds on the land with them as well. Or just take down fencing and let all species on a farm roam around together. Currently, there has been great success in rotational grazing but what is we combined goats, cows, lamas, buffalo on a grazing area together? I found a few articles supporting this idea that seems to be gaining attention recently.
Emulate:
Have a farm with open lands where all species graze on the same land at the same time or possibly rotate mixed-species around.
Evaluate:
Locally Attuned and Responsive, Leveraging Interdependence, Integrates Cyclic Processes, Resilient
Spiral Discover 2: nourish the land
Abstract:
Fertilize and til. By walking around the prairies the buffalo naturally create indents in the soils that work to help generate better soil health. “Fertile patches are created and maintained by a combination of physical and biologically-mediated processes including soil disturbance by animals. We examined the creation of fertile patches by 4 vertebrates, the greater bilby Macrotis lagotis, burrowing bettong Bettongia lesueur, European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, and Gould’s sand goanna Varanus gouldii within dunes, ecotones, and swales in a dunefield in arid South Australia. These animals all create pits when foraging for subterranean food resources. We hypothesized that 1) the effect of pits on litter capture would vary among landscapes and animal species, 2) larger pits would trap more litter and seed, 3) pits would contain more viable seed than the surrounding matrix, and 4) the effect of pits on soil chemistry would vary among animal species, and be greater in landscapes with more finely textured soils. We found that litter was restricted almost exclusively to the pits, and was greater in pits with larger openings. (Ask Nature)
Brainstorm:
Desertification is a current growing threat for overgrazed and mono cropped lands as well as land exposed to increased fire and winds. Many farms work to control doent populations that could normally aid in the revegetation of the land through creating fertile soils and pits for seeds to grow in. What if farming techniques reincorporated balances amounts of rodents and small mammals back into the lands?
Evaluate:
Locally Attuned and Responsive, Leveraging Interdependence, Integrates Cyclic Processes, Resilient
Spiral Discover 3: re-establishing local indigenous foods systems
Abstract:
Look at indigenous land management and how to change to more resilient systems.
Brainstorm:
Can we change how land management is taught and practiced to move to more resilient systems? While indigenous tribes are being given back lands to manage how do we also work to teach their practices in universities and agriculture learning systems? Is there a way to alter our teaching methods to invite better cross collaboration and sharing of knowledge?
Emulate:
Bring more indigenous teachers into learning systems to spread their knowledge and increase the change to indigenous practices in conjunction to turning land back to tribes. Have universities support this transition but paying tribes to allow their students to come to thier lands and do research and learn their methods.
Evaluate:
Locally Attuned and Responsive, Leveraging Interdependence, Integrates Cyclic Processes, Resilient
Australian Ant Plant
Several species of epiphytes, ants, fungi, and butterflies in mangrove forests provide benefits to each other through mutualism..ants obtain shelter, and the plants a supply of scarce nutrients, particularly nitrogen. Saprophytic fungi growing in the ant galleries probably play a role in releasing soluble nutrients from the ant debris. To make the situation even more complicated, the ants also tend larvae of the butterfly Hypochrysops which feed on the tubers and leaves of the ant plant. An epiphytic plant therefore grows on a mangrove tree, accommodates ants, which tend butterfly larvae and supply nutrients to their host, aided by fungi.13
Spiral Discover 1: recycle nutrients
Abstract:
Saprophytic fungi growing in the ant galleries probably play a role in releasing soluble nutrients from the ant debris. The debris of the ants is not wasted it is food for the fungi.
Brainstorm:
Create more incentives to work to better systems of handling human wastes. Systems such as home biogas which is based on how cows convert food into gas. Can we make systems that use fungi to handle human waste? Can that fungi then be used to create medicines, fabrics, or transported to various areas where is can be used to help bring back biodiversity into soils?
Emulate:
Have human waste be a growing medium for mushrooms that can be harvested and used for other things.
Evaluate
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Spiral Discover 2: live within a beneficial system
Abstract:
From parasitic to mutually beneficial, there’s a whole spectrum of interactions possible between different species. A research study published in the journal Science, gives concrete evidence of the existence of cooperation between the bird species, greater honeyguide and the Yao tribe in Mozambique. The honeyguides (Indicator Indicator) recognize and responds to the specific sound signals from honey-hunters by flitting from tree to tree and guiding the hunters to the tree with bee-hive. Hunters take the honey, while the honeyguides relish on the bee-wax. (Permaculture News)
Brainstorm:
How can we work to reintegrate with the local natural systems in our environments? Can man-made environments shift from being things that isolate us from nature to things that integrate us better into nature? Can we teach more about this in our classrooms?
Emulate:
Create buildings that intentionally act as places for nature to dwell in and around. Places for birds to nest that help to control pests?
Evaluate:
Locally Attuned and Responsive, Leveraging Interdependence, Integrates Cyclic Processes
Spiral Discover 3: care for each others young
Abstract:
Ants also tend larvae of the butterfly.
Brainstorm:
What is people not only thought about future generations of people but also of other animals? Could educational material be created to help promote and foster this idea of working towards environments that support the continued success of various species that show how the species survival depends on the mutual concern for carious species offspring?
Emulate:
Show the mutualistic benefit of caring for other species’ children by illustrating how that impacts the success of human children. Create content that illustrates this point of how just concern for future human generations is not enough - we need to have concern for all generations.
Evaluate
Locally Attuned and Responsive, Leveraging Interdependence, Integrates Cyclic Processes, Resilient
Photo Credits:
Design Spiral - Biomimicry Institute
Cactus: Tica Lubin
Buffalo: Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unspalsh
Ant Plant: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanesanebutinsane