Interesting Biomimicry+Interior Design Research Papers

I haven't written in a while.  I have been busy reading everything I can get my hands on, any text that includes the key words biomimicry, biomimetics, nature and design, etc.  I have turned up a lot reading material and have filtered through most of it.  I dug up with 2 interesting papers that I wanted to share.  Please check out the links below.


A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF BIOMIMICRY AND ITS POTENTIAL VALUE FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN by Lance Klein

This first paper is a great graduate thesis from a grad student at Kansas State University.  It contains a lot of great research sources.


Biomimicry: nature’s design process versus the designer’s process

This second paper is a very short 12 page research comparing the differences of a well recognized interior design process to Carl Hastrich's the challenge to biology design spiral.

InterfaceFLOR uses Biomimicry in carpet tile design and application

InterfaceFLOR has dedicated a section on their website to Biomimicry.  Their Spring Leaf carpet tiles are inspired by the "organized chaos" of a forest floor.  Instead of designing a perfect repeatable pattern this carpet system creates a completely random non-repeating pattern.  Personally I find this an extremely simplistic approach to the utilization biomimicry principals, and yet completely genius.  The perfect grid has been done away with allowing for a much more flexible installation.  Check it out.

http://www.interfaceglobal.com/Sustainability/Sustainability-in-Action/Biomimicry.aspx

Meeting with Dr. Janet Kubler

I am so excited to have the chance to meet with Dr. Janet Kubler.  She is a professor in the Biology department at CSUN, a founding member of the Biomimicry Educational Advisory Board for the Institute of Biomimicry, teaches in its biomimicry graduate certificate program and is a consultant with The Mimicry Guild, LLC, a design innovation firm.

Dr. Kubler has been so wonderful to set aside some time to meet with me and discuss my thesis.  I am sure she will be an invaluable resource and I have high hopes of recruiting her to sit on my thesis advisory board.

Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action

This is a must see for anyone interested in Biomimicry Basics.

First Post....

My name is James Robert Spence.  I am an interior designer in Los Angeles and currently working on my graduate degree at CSU Northridge.  Recently I have become very interested in Biomimicry and after reading, "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature" I have decided to focus my thesis research and project on the topic as it relates to the interior built environment.  Over the next year I will be working to research and develop nature based design processes that can be applied and integrated into the interior design process.  As my research progresses my topic will become more focused.  My primary research has just started but I have included a few interesting links... 


http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/
http://asknature.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77BfxnVlyc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GFq12w5WU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVHtAjQoWmg