Example
“The natural world is built upon common motifs and patterns. Recognizing patterns in nature creates a map for locating yourself in change, and anticipation what is yet to come.” - Sharon Weil
What does it mean to "Abstract and Biologize"?
In the next step of the bio-inspired design process, we take aspects of the problem analysis and “biologize” (Baumeister et al., 2014, p. 100) the design challenge, shifting the applied problem into a set of verbs that may have analogies in the biological world. Biologizing the problem is the first step in using function as a bridge between design and biology. It’s helpful to expand this list of biologized verbs into as many different functional search terms as possible.
How do you "Abstract and Biologize"?
Shift the applied problem into a set of verbs that may have analogies in the biological world. For instance, if we are interested in exploring lighting options, we would want to brainstorm how a “lightbulb” or other lighting elements might translate to biology. For example, selecting verbs associated with how light moves through the environment, such as “illuminate”, “reflect”, “absorb”, or “refract”. If we are interested in how to design a building envelope to deal with mold or mildew problems, we might think of various ways to get rid of mildew, whether that is inhibiting growth, repelling moisture, or killing microbes.
The questions related to function are essential to consider during the abstraction and biologizing process. For the building envelope example, we narrowed the focus to how the envelope “regulates temperature” during the winter months. Parallel questions (how the envelope regulates cooling, lighting, moisture, etc.) and other seasonal issues can be considered simultaneously or separately and integrated later.
References
Baumeister, D., Tocke, R., Dwyer, J., Ritter, S., and Benyus, J. 2014. Biomimicry Resource Handbook. A Seed of Best Practices. Montana: Biomimicry Institute, 100-116.