This newsletter is created for you, to keep you informed of Nature-inspired innovations and research for our tropical context. With the support of DesignSingapore Council's Good Design Research (GDR) initiative, bioSEA and collaborators are developing a toolkit to advance the application of biomimicry in the built environment, to value-add to our sustainability ambitions, and initiate new thinking and ideas.
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the 6th Biomimicry Design Toolkit Newsletter! We are in the final stages of curating content for the design booklet. This is the penultimate issue before we launch the Design Toolkit!
The bioSEA team has been busy this month with a series of cool outreach events held in conjunction with the Singapore Design Week (SDW) 2022!
Clockwise from the top left-hand side: SDW banner for 17 September workshop at National Design Center (base image credit: MJA Studio x WOHA), filming for toolkit video, SDW banner for 24 September workshop at National Design Center, voice recording for toolkit video.
Organized by the DesignSingapore Council, this year’s festival pillars are Design Futures, Design Marketplace, and Design Impact. As our research on biomimicry for the built environment dovetails well into its core pillars, we were honoured to be part of a platform that celebrates and shares best practices of our innovation-based economy!
Cities are very much on the front line of the fight against climate change. With more than 20% of global greenhouse emissions coming from our built environment, coupled with our region’s exponential rate of urbanization, the rise in income and lifestyle expectations, the need for smarter, zero-carbon cities has never been more urgent.
In developing a biomimicry design toolkit to enhance tropical façade performance, we hope to facilitate the coalesce of academic knowledge with industry expertise, and promote collaboration along the value chain to ignite creative solutions and support Singapore’s net zero goals and Green Plan 2030.
Decarbonizing new and existing buildings by making them more energy efficient, ultimately reduce costs and reap positive environmental and social impacts!
As part of Singapore Design Week 2022, the bioSEA team ran a workshop ‘What buildings can learn from Nature: Biomimicry 101’ on 17 September at the National Design Centre. We had a diverse range of participants hailing from architecture, business, design, and teaching backgrounds join the session.
Lisa kicked off the workshop by walking our participants through 50 years of Singapore’s design history chronicling the evolution of built infrastructure. With the foundation laid, Anuj transitioned into introducing participants to biomimicry, bioSEA’s mission to create a biomimicry toolkit for tropical building facades, and priming them to co-create a biomimetic facade for a fictional data center in a hands-on activity.
The workshop doubled up as a design charrette with feedback from participants providing insight into how biomimicry could revolutionize building design and sustainability space.
Most participants were new to applying biomimicry concepts to a real-life problem yet, they made a bold attempt to combine a multitude of biomimetic strategies across organisms to optimize derived benefits.
In pursuit of sustainability, participants tried to strategically integrate passive biomimetic design with well-established net-zero practices such as harvesting rainwater and solar power.
Creative pitches to convince industry professionals to adopt biomimetic design practices were suggested followed by discussions on how an innovation metric could further incentivize and reward such efforts.
Overall, the workshop was enjoyable for both the bioSEA team and participants! We look forward to creating more such opportunities for the wider public and building a community of budding biomimics!
As part of the Design Toolkit, bioSEA’s team is building a horizon scan to engage readers with some of the most cutting-edge applications of biomimicry in architecture. This section features a range of existing biomimetic projects that utilize natural organisms to solve the primary function of thermoregulation, e.g., heat dissipation, or tackle secondary functions such as water harvesting and carbon capture! The examples are a selection of inspiring projects collated from hundreds of sources from around the world including industry experts, peer-reviewed journals, design publications, and more. A particular focus is given to designs optimized for the tropics and its hot, and humid climate.
The stage of development for building skin projects that were collated during our horizon scan.
Horizon scan projects are classified by themes and their stage of development, from conceptual to built. We hope that you are looking forward to checking out the inspiring collection of projects in the horizon scan soon. We are excited to share it with you!
Our long awaited video featuring work on the biomimicry design toolkit for tropical building facades it out! Launched at the Singapore Design Week, the video draws attention to our warming urban cityscapes and how nature-inspired design can play a part in cooling temperatures in Singapore!
The surface temperature difference between Singapore's cityscape and forests. Image credit: James Khoo.
Our termite mound inspired wall panel designs also made it to the Good Design Research Exhibition showcase held at Bugis+ from 16 - 25 September 2022. It was an opportunity to reach the public and share how cool termite mound inspired wall panels can be.
The Biomimicry Design Toolkit was featured at the Good Design Research Exhibit in Bugis+, Singapore.
Delivered once a month to your mailbox, please feel free to share the newsletter and spread the word around you!
If you would like to know more or participate in the project, find out more here or write to us at biomimicry.gdr@biosea.sg
Learn more about the Good Design Research (GDR) initiative by DesignSingapore Council here.
