Growing the city: developing collaborative design process through a Biomimicryinspired curriculum

Abstract

Habitual approaches to design are proving to be destructive to our environment because of man‘s heavy reliance on materials used in products, processes and systems. The authors believe it is imperative that design students from all disciplines be taught to investigate design solutions from a more sustainable and holistic perspective. This paper tracks the development of an innovative Biomimicry-inspired module, which involved 70 students from Graphic, Industrial and Surface Design in the Faculty of Informatics (FID) at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The trans-disciplinary project was driven by the need to transform students‘ approach to sustainable design through consideration of a more productive relationship between design, technology, biology and science. Having gained thorough knowledge of the inherent problem-solving and opportunity-seeking nature of Biomimicry, we recognised its potential for a holistic approach to design thinking. We have placed particular emphasis on using Biomimicry to promote sustainable design in its purest form – from resource to product, communication, systems and processes. Biomimicry, as a field, aims to produce innovative products by mimicking systems, strategies, forms and processes evident in nature. The biomimetic process provides a highly structured methodology that enables us to investigate carefully what organisms do to survive and how to abstract these principles for designing solutions to serve human needs. The process requires that the designer move to and fro between biology and human requirements to develop strategies that can be beneficial to us without impacting negatively on our context/environment. As such, the core design process remains the same