biomimicry education summit

last week i was privileged to attend the 2010 biomimicry education summit at autodesk's san francisco offices. it was inspiring, motivating, educational and a lot of fun. i met some great people who are teaching and learning about (and sort of discovering) biomimicry. i even had some offers to purchase my thesis manual, more on that later! interestingly, universities in canada (ontario college of art and design and the university of calgary) seem to be embracing biomimicry more readily than in the u.s. although arizona state university has created innovation space which teams up graphic and industrial designers with engineers and business students to solve design challenges and bring their designs to the marketplace. they also stress sustainability and biomimicry in their pursuit of elegant design solutions.

students from these programs talked about their experience working on the biomimicry institute's student design challenge. for the past 2 years students have been working with pacific outdoor gear based in bozeman, mt and pika designs to create innovative new outdoor gear. i participated in a brainstorming team to envision expansion ideas for upcoming design challenges including funding options and strategic planning for a proposed year-long challenge. it's an exciting time for biomimicry education and makes me even more sure that i went to the wrong grad school. learning is supposed to be challenging, yes, not soul-destroying. but i've found motivation from my involvement with the community of biomimics and my friends at project m so i've managed to find my way. i'll end by mentioning some of the great presenters that inspired me this past week. thank you to: janine benyus, cindy gilbert, sam stier, valerie casey, marjan eggermont, bruce hinds and carl hastrich, thomas knittel, steven vogel, christopher viney, dawn danby, jeremy faludi and tom mckeag for re-affirming my belief that i'm in the right place with the right people trying to create a better future together.

2010 solar decathlon

i've always been a big fan of the solar decathlon and am glad to see that europe has gotten in on the game too. the decathlon was started by the u.s. department of energy in 2002 and challenges university-level architecture programs to create livable, solar-powered homes. this year the decathlon went to madrid and featured 17 universities, including 2 from china. here's a link to inhabitat's article about virginia tech's lumenhaus, the winner this year and the competition in general. congrats to tech! there's also a great bamboo house so check out the slideshow. here are some images:

IKAROS, the university of applied sciences rosenheim, germany


living equia, the university of applied sciences of berlin, germany


re:focus, university of florida


urcomante house, universidad de valladolid, spain


home+, stuttgart university of applied sciences, germany (my favorite)