living design

a post on inhabitat about the living light sculpture in seoul, south korea caught my eye and led me to investigate some fascinating interactive experiences and sculptures produced by the living, a collaborative effort between david benjamin and soo-in yang. the living light communicates with the korean ministry of the environment to track air quality in seoul and illuminates on the lighted map which neighborhoods have the highest quality. you can text the sculpture for reports on various regions of the city.

here's a video of the light in action:

Living Light (Seoul, 2009) from David Benjamin on Vimeo.

another of the living's projects, amphibious architecture, involves monitoring water quality in new york city. here's a blurb from the project page:

"two networks of floating interactive tubes, installed at sites in the east river and the bronx river, house a range of sensors below water and an array of lights above water. the sensors monitor water quality, presence of fish, and human interest in the river ecosystem. the lights respond to the sensors and create feedback loops between humans, fish, and their shared environment. an sms interface allows citizens to text-message the fish, to receive real-time information about the river, and to contribute to a display of collective interest in the environment."

you can (pretend to) text the fish hanging out near the sculpture and they will respond with real-time information about their surroundings. be sure to check out the video on the project page to see how it all works. the installation was commissioned for toward the sentient city, an exhibit by the architectural league of new york. the exhibit explores the interaction between smart technology, architecture and the ecology of the new york.

here are some beautiful photos of the installation:

design + nature workshop!

i've officially scheduled my first design + nature workshop for sunday 11/8/09 (also happens to be my b-day). i'm tying it into an existing nature walk taking place at the don edwards national wildlife refuge. this will give us access to microscopes to look at some of the organisms that live in the salt marsh and the adaptations that allow them to survive in a saline environment. this workshop will be kind of an experiment but i'm hoping to inspire some designers to start consulting nature when solving design problems. it will also be a big learning experience for me and is hopefully just the beginning of a series of workshops.

here's the invite:


in addition i got my thesis website up! it took some serious hours inspecting javascript and css code but i managed to bend the web to my will. best viewed in firefox.

here are some screenshots:

defining the "bios"

this was the first week of my last fall semester (and my last full semester of grad school, 4 years is just too long to be in a grad program). but it should be an inspiring semester, i get to stray from the traditional graphic design curriculum and try some new ways of expressing creativity. i'll probably be writing a lot about a class i'm sitting in on at cca called "how would nature do that?", it's a design and biomimicry class and it should be integral in informing my thesis. this is especially true for workshop planning and carrying forth with creating design + nature pedagogy. i took 6 pages of notes in class complete with sketches, i can't tell you the last time i did that in a traditional design class.

i wanted to share some definitions that i found helpful in trying to understand how the world of design + nature (+ science) come together. i'm paraphrasing here what we talked about in class.

bio-utilization: using nature to solve problems or enhance existing human systems. ie. john todd's use of wetland plants to design wastewater treatment infrastructure at the omega center for sustainable living.

biomorphism: designing objects to look like natural forms, regardless of material or function. ie. chandeliers that look like deer antlers. it was also an art movement in the 1950s.

biomimicry: studying natures forms, processes and systems to inform human designs in the service of creating more sustainable designs, especially if they function in closed-loop cycles. ie. using the spiral shape found at the center of a calla lilly to create an impeller that circulates water efficiently, see pax scientific.

bioinspiration: using nature's principles to create new design solutions that go beyond nature's processes. ie. work being done at ciber by robert full's students, who oftentimes create robots that can walk up walls like a gecko. see my 7/23 post.

personally my own interests lie within the realm of biomimicry because it fully takes into account the question of efficiency and sustainability. i'm less interested in electronic gadgets and robots that function with animal-like properties. we need to take nature's processes and systems into account and create evermore efficient and organic designs.

natural filtration

i've been spending the morning catching up on science news, listening to science friday podcasts about wind energy and perusing nytimes' dot earth and green inc. blogs. i came across this article about scientists re-discovering the cleansing properties of moss. a company called creative water solutions now offers sphagnum moss to help filter pool water and reduce chlorine-usage. founder dr. david knighton states: "'we just rediscovered what’s been used for centuries,' he said. 'northern minnesota is known for its clean clear lakes, and that’s one of the reasons.' dr. knighton realized he was on to something, he added, when he dropped some moss into his home spa and within a few days the water was crystal clear."

creative water solutions is researching larger-scale application of moss-filtration and has so far had success: "st. paul’s supervisor of aquatics, lynn waldorf, said the two-month trial had already cut the city’s chemical and pool maintenance bills. 'we weren’t using as many chemicals, we weren’t having to clean the pool as much, and the water quality was gorgeous,'"

here's an image of the moss which currently grows across the northern us and southern canada.

fat free design

"fat free design" is actually a phrase i first heard from ross lovegrove but it continues to stick in my mind because it aptly states what i believe to be the future of design. another term could be "essential design," design that is pared down to its simplest, most useful parts with no extraneous waste.

i've been watching robert full's TED presentations online and trying to reconcile his statement that "we should not mimic nature" with my own views (and those of the biomimicry guild) that mimicking nature is one of the best ways to both learn from and pay homage to nature. but i see the same sparkle in full's eyes as i see in janine benyus' eyes when i view their presentations. essentially, they have the same core message: we must respect and preserve nature's designs while we still can.

i have stated that i do not want to focus on using nature's designs to create high-tech robots which are still made out of metal and plastic, but i do have a deep respect for full's work and that of other scientists and engineers using bioinspiration. here is robert full's TED presentation and i guess i will leave it up to you to figure out which side of the fence you stand on.



a recent article in the ny times science section about the movement of saharan lizards is no doubt old news to full and his students. full works at cal in the center for interdisciplinary biological inspiration in education and research.

sand + water

before they slip my mind i wanted to upload a couple of things that have caught my attention in the last few weeks. the first is a plant that i'm sure will be very inspirational to biomimetic designers. it's called desert rhubarb, it's found in isreal and what makes it special is its self-irrigating form. its leaves are structured like a mini-mountain range (fractals in nature) with the valleys functioning as irrigation channels. according to the bbc article it's the only plant that has used this kind of structure to help it survive in the desert. here's a close-up view of a textured leaf which enables the plant to collect 16 times more water than similar plants.



a friend forwarded me this next project which is interesting for two reasons, the form it takes and the biology behind its formation. originally posted on bldgblog the project is called "dune: arenaceous anti-desertification architecture," arenaceous means 1. resembling, derived from, or containing sand and 2. growing in sandy areas. these are sandstone walls which encourage dune formation, plant growth and can even help house people. the project was proposed by magnus larsson and won the holcim foundation's award for sustainable construction in marrakech, morocco. what i find the most interesting is how the wall is formed. larsson proposes using bacillus pasteurii, a microorganism which helps sand solidify into sandstone. the forms the sandstone creates are beautiful enough, when you add the fact that these walls also reverse desertification they seem too good to be true. here are some images.





and finally a personal update. in a couple of weeks i will be traveling to greensboro, alabama to participate in project m which is an intensive design collaborative for designers engaged in social issues. i'm honored that i was chosen to attend and i can't wait to report back on my experience!

un environment programme

just a quick note to congratulate janine benyus for being named a 2009 champion of the earth by the united nations environment programme. she was recognized in the category of science and innovation. here's a short video about biomimicry created for this un programme.

and congratulations to one of my other heros, yann arthus-bertrand, who won in the category of inspiration and action!

and a couple of images from this week's tilden park hike. i'm working on a book on tilden and golden gate parks so i have the pleasure of spending some time in both.