Biomimetic Design

What Does it Mean to Mimic Nature ?   

A Typology for Biomimetic Design

Research Article, Published: 27 September 2023, Springer Nature

In an effort to produce new and more sustainable technologies, designers have turned to nature in search of inspiration and innovation. Biomimetic design (from the Greek bios, life, mimesis, imitation) is the conscious imitation of biological models to solve today's technical and ecological challenges. Nowadays numerous different approaches exist that take inspiration from nature as a model for design, such as biomimicry, biomimetics, bionics, permaculture, ecological engineering, etc. This variety of practices comes in turn with a wide range of different promises, including sustainability, increased resilience, multi-functionality, and a lower degree of risk.

In order to make sense of the heterogeneous field of biomimetic design, the paper provided an analytical typology based on existing assumptions about the conceptual and normative dimensions of biomimetic design. Their intersection generated six different biomimetic types, which represent the conceptual and normative tensions that are driving different research trends in the field. These types can help characterize different kinds of approaches, practices, and technologies that draw inspiration from, imitate, or integrate nature into technological design. The typology categorizes the assumptions that a particular approach adopts concerning how the mimicking of nature is achieved and with what goals and values, enabling the comparison and contrast with other biomimetic practices and technologies. In this way, the typology offers a hermeneutic tool to interpret the current variegated landscape of biomimetic design that can be useful to philosophers reflecting on nature-based technologies and to practitioners involved in biomimetic disciplines.

An analytical grid composed of six different biomimetic types, which enable the classification of existing and possible biomimetic approaches, practices, and technologies according to their specific conceptual assumptions and guiding norms are described.

Biomimetic type 1 – Technical Inspiration

The first biomimetic type is the most general and comprises all those practices that have natural models as idea generators. Sometimes “bioinspiration”, “bio-inspired design” (BID) or “biologically inspired design” are used as general labels for all biomimetic design.

Biomimetic type 2 – Technical Imitation

When engineers model, abstract, and translate functional principles from nature to technology, we are in the realm of imitation. Biomimetic designers employ this design method to implement precise functional principles found in nature in technology. Famous examples such as the Japanese bullet train inspired by the beak of the kingfisher bird, self-cleaning paint that imitates the surface of lotus leaves, or wind rotor blades modelled after whales’ fins, all fall in this category (Nachtigall & Wisser, 2014). In technical imitation nature is framed as a repository of refined design ideas developed through the extensive “R&D” process of evolution, whose optimization and resilience humans can study, learn from, and imitate.

Biomimetic type 3 – Technical Integration

Technical integration is biomimetic design that employs biological organisms directly. Practices such as bio-design (Myers & Antonelli, 2014) and bio-hybrid robotics (Mestre et al., 2021) employ, modify, and integrate biological material into technology to harness the unique properties of living organisms, imitating their natural counterparts. For example, biohybrid actuators integrate artificial structures with living cells and tissues to create biohybrid robots that overcome the limitations of small-scale fully artificial robots and could be used for drug delivery (Ricotta et al., 2017). The direct use and modification of organisms enable the leverage of processes (metabolism, movement, substance production, etc.) that are otherwise difficult to reproduce through non-biological processes.

Biomimetic type 4 – Normative Inspiration

Normative inspiration occurs when designers look to nature for sustainable design ideas, being inspired by abstract principles and not looking into the functionality of specific models. The goal is to achieve functions similar to nature to replace less sustainable alternatives, such as using the sun as an energy source, without relying on the same mechanisms of nature to achieve them. For example, recycling practices are inspired by the closed-loop circles found in nature, but the relation with existing material cycles is often very loose and based more on general ideas rather than close imitation (McCormick & Kautto, 2013; Zwier et al., 2015).

Biomimetic type 5 – Normative Imitation

Biomimetic design that studies nature to transfer functional principles and does so to improve the sustainability of innovations falls within normative imitation. Many designs in biomimicry emulate particular life-sustaining principles, evaluating the compliance of the final design with “Life’s Principles” as the last step of a “design spiral” methodology (Baumeister et al., 2014). In this way, the biomimicry approach “creates conditions conducive to life” by trying to ensure that the idea of nature as a measure of ecological sustainability is considered. 

Biomimetic type 6 – Normative Integration

Normative integration comprises biomimetic practices that try to connect human interventions with the environment in order to create innovations that are not only sustainable but also support, remediate, and restore existing ecosystems. Bio-integrated innovations that focus on reconnecting with the ecological structure of a landscape integrate nature into design and design into nature in order employ nature’s capacities in the service of humans while also ensuring that such projects benefit the surrounding ecological community.

In conclusion

A biomimetic technology can incorporate general functional principles inspired by nature, or it can imitate more precise functions that have been accurately modelled. Sometimes a biomimetic product also requires the integration of artificial and biological elements. Besides such conceptual disagreements, normative differences separate approaches that value the mimicking of nature for reasons of functionality and performance from those that may value it also for reasons of ecological sustainability, seeing biomimetic design as a crucial path in the development of more environmentally friendly technologies to reflect on the ways in which emerging technologies such as biomimetic design are shaping the interface between nature, technology, and human beings.