BIOMIMETIC DESIGN FOR ADDRESSING LOCAL ISSUES

Carlo Santulli, Università di Roma – La Sapienza, Electrical Engineering Department,

Carla Langella, Seconda Università di Napoli (SUN) Facoltà di Architettura “Luigi Vanvitelli” 

In recent years, design has acquired a growing responsibility towards ethical themes, such as those connected with environmental and social sustainability. As a consequence, the possibilities for the designer to have some say in this field are gradually becoming broader. In general, the strive for improved sustainability has generated results, methods and tools readily available in contemporary design. In this sense, design for sustainability would not only encompass the selection of low impact materials and processes, but also allow interventions aimed at improving the robustness of concepts e.g., by using the knowledge acquired in nature through biological evolution.

More specifically, bio-inspiration would imply transferring to the culture of design new qualities and strategies inspired to nature. In this regard, it is necessary to verify the effect of the application of these principles and methods at large scale by a dissemination process aimed at a wider audience of end-users. The above process should take place through strategical design procedures, capable of leading to a sounder and broader consciousness of objectives to be pursued.

As a matter of fact, the adoption of innovative designed products, services, scenarios and models from an ever growing public enables to considerably amplify the effects of environmental policies, which were originally oriented to very limited and specialised targets. Large volume applications will enable converting principles, tools and strategies, the result of many years of research and experimentation, in a real and effective drive for change.

This paper is aimed at highlighting the results of some design experiments oriented towards the conception of large-volume products and services of everyday use, carried out in the frame of the hybrid design lab. The experiments were developed from the theoretical research carried out in the sector of biomimetic design upon the territory in Southern Italy and in particular in the Campania region. Here, the application of environmental and social sustainability principles requires disposing urgent action schemes based on problem-solving strategies. Design may respond to this urgency by clear-cut proposals able to offer a new interpretation of quality and cultural identity in the local context, to be transferred in innovative and compatible products, services and behaviour models.

Using bio-inspiration for the development of new products and devices requires the acquisition and implementation of educational tools, based on hybrid design and manufacturing technologies, in the frame of a multidisciplinary curriculum. In particular, the students were required to develop a design concept capable of addressing a single and specific issue in the local context. A number of preliminary actions were required. These involved analysing the issue, discussing its causes, and its immediate and indirect consequences ‏ , examining the existing solutions and evaluating their overall inadequacy, and researching alternatives available in nature and appropriately applicable in the field. The proposed bioinspired solutions range in a number of different fields, involving social and environmental sustainability issues: these include e.g., packaging, road safety, recycling, customer-oriented services, ergonomy.