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Submittals were evaluated by the AIA Committee on the
Environment (COTE) leaders and members of the Biomimicry Guild for
their use of biomimicry concepts and life principles.
In 2007 COTE issued a call for submissions for student work
influenced by biomimicry. We received submittals representing the
work of 13 students. The review team included Dayna Baumeister and
Rose Tocke of the Biomimicry Guild and Tom Fisher, dean
of the College of Design at University of Minnesota, with Kira
Gould representing COTE’s national advisory group.
The review team determined that the work of five students (or
teams of students) should be included in the first AIA Committee on
the Environment Gallery of Biomimicry Inspired Student Work.
The selections for the first gallery include
- Design and Communication
Student: Matthew Tindall
Clemson University School of Architecture
Instructor: Keith Evan Green
“I responded to the modularity and mobility of this
design, which seemed to reference the reproductive stages of the
slime mold.”
Rose Tocke, The Biomimicry Guild
- Animated Architecture
Student: William Zion
Clemson University School of Architecture
Instructor: Keith Evan Green
“Both of these examples seemed to really engage the life
principles and dig into the notion of function and then seek ways
to apply that in the designs.”
Dayna Baumeister, The Biomimicry Guild
- Living Machines
Student: Sarah Berl
Massachusetts College of Art, School of Architecture
Instructor: Patti Seitz
“This interesting and well-articulated idea about a
cooperative community draws from nature in concept and then delves
into the functions in nature. The student worked with a coastal
specialist and a hydrologist/geologist and that informed the design
work.”
Kira Gould, AIA/COTE
- Sound Team
Students: Britton Chambers, Whitney Parks, Adam Riddle, Nate
Steurwald (sound)
University of Minnesota College of Design
Instructor: Marc Swackhamer
“Snow is geological rather than biological, but that
didn’t bother us because you could tell that this team was
really searching for champion adapters; they found that snow was
actually better than seaweed or kelp. And of course, life uses
snow, too.”
Dayna Baumeister, The Biomimicry Guild
- Glare Team
Students: Mike McEldery, David McWilliams, Bernt Stenberg, Emily
Winkels (glare)
University of Minnesota College of Design
Instructor: Marc Swackhamer
“This shows that designers need to be thinking at all
scales. This is not a building, but it is a great example of what
we want to encourage people to be doing. This team wasn’t
thinking about nature in terms of formal relationships; they were
clearly looking to the functions and the principles.”
Tom Fisher, University of Minnesota College of Design
The digital student gallery is available on the COTE Web site in .PDF and will be shown at 2008
Biomimicry Workshops sponsored by COTE, including one scheduled for
September in Boston.
The review team notes that several of the other solutions were
very intriguing from a formal, urban design, and bioutilization
point of view, but in some ways did not reach far enough into the
exploration of functions to be considered biomimicry. Some of the
text materials provided deep explorations that were not evidenced
in the design. In some cases, it was clear that the students were
trying to dig into the topic but perhaps were not getting guidance
on who to talk with outside of design faculty or how to develop the
ideas in the design work itself. To this point, it is worth noting
that four of the five selected projects were submitted by faculty
on behalf of the students behind the work in their studios. The
team had left the submission open to students or faculty for just
this purpose, and this points out how support from the teachers can
help bring a concept into a true design exploration. “All
those that won had strong faculty involvement,” says review
team member Tom Fisher.
As COTE plans future student work galleries, the group will
consider the lessons learned through this process and will refine
the approach and seek ways to offer funding and other support to
studios where deep engagement in this way of thinking can be
pursued.
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