Bio-Inspired Design Symposium
February 21, 2018
BCGC hosted a one-day bio-inspired design symposium at the CITRIS center on February 21, 2018, as part of its ongoing mission to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and healthier material choices in the building industry. This event featured four different perspectives on solving problems in architecture and design using solutions derived from the natural world.
Speakers included:
- Material Characterization & the Character Of Matter - Dr. Maria Paz-Gutierrez, Professor of Architecture, UC Berkeley
-
A Methodology for Transferring Principles of Plant Movements to Elastic Systems in Architecture - Dr. Simon Schleicher, Assistant Professor of Architecture, UC Berkeley
-
Bio-Inspired Design and Green Chemistry - Thomas McKeag, Executive Director of Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry
-
Designing for Disasters - Anamarija Frankic, the founding director of the Green Harbors Project at UMass Boston
Keynote address:
- A Camel is Not a Horse Designed by Committee - Michael Pawlyn, author, architect and TED speaker
Michael Pawlyn is the founder of Exploration, an architectural firm, an internationally-renowned architect, and an innovator in the fields of biomimicry and sustainability. Prior to establishing his design firm Michael Pawlyn worked with Grimshaw for ten years and was central to the team that radically re-invented horticultural architecture for the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK. He was responsible for leading the design of the Warm Temperate and Humid Tropics Biomes and the subsequent phases. He is a co-founder of the Sahara Forest Project, an integrated approach to greening arid lands by using greenhouses to desalinate seawater and grow specialty crops. His book “Biomimicry in Architecture,” an important work on the subject, is now in its second printing.