VIRTUAL New Schools of Thought

Abstract

This paper explores a “bio-Inspired” design research collaboration between a team of educators from biology and architecture at the University of Minnesota. It considers how biology can inform design thinking, processes, and outcomes to enhance ecological and health benefits for humans, other species, and the planet. Bio-inspired design frameworks – such as biomimetic, biomorphic, biophilic, bioclimatic, and others – look to biological models, processes, and systems for strategies to expand design thinking in response to the ecological challenges of our day (Bhushan 2009). The design approach discussed in this paper integrates these frameworks with a six-step Bio-Inspired Design Process that was adapted from a Biomimetic Process developed by engineer Pierre Emanual Fayemi et al. (2017). The design process has been reframed from “biomimetic” (mimicking biology) to “bio-inspired” (drawing design inspiration from biology) to provide greater flexibility to designers in translating biological strategies from various bio-design frameworks. The six-step process represents a sequence of iterative design explorations that guide a practitioner as they integrate human design space with biological space. The integrated six-step design process enable designers to translate the design challenge more accurately into biological terms, deepen the biological accuracy, and structure the translation of biological strategies into design concepts. A case study of a series of bio-inspired daylighting design interventions to an existing building is used to illustrate how the six-step bio-inspired design process and select bio-inspired frameworks can be used to inform and shape critical design thinking, methods, and outcomes to enhance biological inspiration in design education and practice.