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Biomimicry Institute, Autodesk Announce World's First Database of Nature-Inspired Design Strategies

Imagine if buildings were as self-sufficient as living organisms: if they could gather water, filter air, and adapt to local climate conditions. Imagine if the natural world could teach us everything we need to know about sustainable, efficient design.

AskNature.org

Now for the first time, a new online database called AskNature.org will bring nature's best design ideas to design tables around the world. The new project, created by the Biomimicry Institute and sponsored by Autodesk, was announced on Nov. 21 at the Greenbuild 2008 conference in Boston.

AskNature.org is a free, public-domain online library of nature's best design ideas, organized by function and explained with illustrations and in language relevant to designers.

AskNature.org is a project of the Biomimicry Institute, founded by Janine Benyus, the renowned author of the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. AskNature.org is collaborating with the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History and E.O. Wilson's Encyclopedia of Life as a source of data for the portal.

The portal explains in nontechnical language and enhanced with illustrations to explain how things work. The portal helps architects, designers, and engineers access and understand sustainable design concepts so they can use them in their own products and projects.

Biomimetic Information

Autodesk believes that biomimicry, as a design paradigm, can provide our customers with design intelligence to help them make smarter design decisions - whether they are designing a building, a train, a shoe or a city. Looking ahead, Autodesk's goal is to make biomimetic information accessible to a wide range of users globally. Autodesk product teams are investigating technology intersections, including those with the Autodesk® Seek web service, which has already made select biomimetic products available to designers.

Architects, designers and innovators can use this resource to study life's approaches to sustainable design--for example, how butterflies create pigment-free color, or how plants split water to release hydrogen.

"The core idea is that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature has already found the solutions to the sustainability challenges humans face," said Janine Benyus, founder of the non-profit Biomimicry Institute and author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.

AskNature.org--part search engine, part social network--is a place where biologists and innovators can meet, exchange information and design together.  The site also has a feature called "Thank a Genius," which encourages the investment of a portion of profits derived from bio-inspired innovations to go toward preserving the organisms and ecosystems that inspired the breakthrough.

AskNature.org is sponsored by Autodesk, a world leader in design innovation technology. With a user base of 9 million architects, designers and engineers around the world, Autodesk sees biomimicry as a revolutionary design concept that can help influence better design decisions.

A growing number of businesses are using biomimicry to solve their design challenges. As one example, the architectural firm HOK is planning a community development in India that seeks to mimic tree roots with its foundation structure, as a way to deal with soil stability problems. They are also designing roofs that shed water during monsoon season and also store water for use in the drought season--just like trees do in that environment. 

Biomimicry at Greenbuild 2008

Janine Benyus, along with renowned Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson  announce the launch of AskNature.org. on November 21, 2009.  Wilson's Encyclopedia of Life is integrated with the AskNature.org database.

For more information about the Biomimicry Institute: www.biomimicryinstitute.org.

For more information about Autodesk's role: www.autodesk.com/biomimicry

Every career has a specialized language...a glossary.

By crating your own glossary of terms and practicing using the terms in conversation and writing, you absorb those concepts into your "toolbox" of active processes, tools and outcomes.

Glossary items for your personal toolbox include:

Processes
Cutting edge discoveries
Key players
Equipment and tools
Quality terms
Metrics
Places of significance
Sectors and specializations
Scientific discoveries, specializations and elements
Engineering concepts
Job titles and career ladder
Education and training
Economic terms

...etc.

Your personal glossary isn't built in a day... it is an ongoing document that tracks changes in the field and even your own terms that are informal and that are the footprints of your own innovation,.

"Language is the house of being" one philosopher said...and the power of language is that it not only makes it possible to explain and share your knowledge with others, but it helps you clarify your own processes and helps you put change into perspective.  Especially during turbulent times such as downturns in your industry or economic boom and bust cycles

Glossaries are not only terms, but explanations.   Many trade associations and government agencies have put their glossaries online.  These can serve as a good starting point for your own personal glossary.  Each general term can be examined for localized or specialized terms that you can add.  Terms such as shortcuts, proprietary standards, etc. that you need to know, remember and implement in your job, and build on in your careers.

Searching for "green glossary" produced pages of online glossaries -- most of them somewhat specialized:


Life Goggles: The Green glossary
http://www.lifegoggles.com/652/the-green-glossary-environmental-terms-explained/

Go Green Virginia
www.gogreenva.org/?/green_glossary

Green Glossary by Antron
Green Glossary defines environmental terms that are most relevant to the interior furnishing industry.
antron.net/content/resources/green_glossary/ant06_04.shtml


Searhing for "environmental glossary" produces a very different list:

EPA: Terms of Environment
www.epa.gov/OCEPATERMS/

NRDC: Glossary of Environmental Terms
www.nrdc.org/reference/glossary/a.asp

Earth 911 Glossary
earth911.com/glossary/

... so you can see that terms are very powerful -- they are the heart of our new world of online searching. Google's mission in life is to index all information... and keywords are our key to finding specific nuggets of valuable information.

So knowing your career glossary is a tremendous boon for self-education and career development.

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