The Nature of Design

Few ideas are truly revolutionary; surprise lies most often in redefinition. As Albert Einstein pointed out, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we used when we created them." This suggests that we must develop new ways of looking at familiar situations. We must redescribe or re-envision what we think we know about the world and ourselves. Take microsurgery and genetic mapping-they are just some of the pioneering practices leading to a redefinition of the aging process.

Design is no longer just about making things. It's about conceptualizing them, envisioning them. It's about the packaging and conveyance of knowledge. In order to weigh real alternatives, we must examine and embrace a multiplicity of meanings.

Put another way, the challenge for the designer is dematerialization, finding ways to disburden the environment while servicing business and industry-whose goal is efficiency for the sake of profitability. We must share what we know, or our predicament will surely worsen.

Digital technology, while clearly no panacea, is enabling us to work with greater efficiency and generate considerably less waste. We are literally building solutions out of thin air, our ideas made manifest in bits and bytes. Broadband technologies are making it possible to move vast quantities of information weightlessly and economically. Videoconferencing is eliminating the necessity of physical presence. Telecommunications have given rise to the "teleshopper." Today we can travel great distances-attending international conferences, visiting foreign museums, going to school abroad-electronically. All of these activities promote dematerialization. The less burdened the environment, the greater the chance that we will prosper. Knowledge of what it means to prosper is something we will undoubtedly gather along the way-and nature may be the best model to follow.

Bionics: Drawn from Nature

Major lack Steele of the US Air Force coined the term bionics in 1960 to describe what was then an emerging research approach at the interface between natural and synthetic systems. Steele defined bionics as "the analysis of the ways in which living systems actually work and having discovered nature's tricks, embodying them in hardware."

Many other definitions can be found in the literature, but for the purposes of this article I have chosen the following:

Bionics is the derivation of engineering principles employed in natural systems, and the application of these principles to the design or improvement of materials and technological systems.

Biological systems are characterized by their miniaturization, their sensitivity, their high degree of flexibility, their ability to adapt to changing environments, and their high degree of reliability. These design features and the engineering principles that drive them offer a great range of possibilities for research into the improvement of manmade systems.

The concept of mimicking nature very likely dates to prehistoric times. One can envision prehistoric humans fashioning a weapon resembling the claws of the wild animals they fought, or imitating their natural surroundings for the purposes of camouflage.

Leonardo da Vinci, however, may have been the first true bionics researcher. Many, if not most, of his designs were based on observations in nature. Take, for example, the "ornithopter," a flapping-wing aircraft patterned on his careful anatomical studies of birds (figure 1). Similarly, the Wright brothers created stabilizers for their airplanes by analyzing how a turkey vulture uses its body to reduce turbulence.

Another example of early contributions derived from the mimicking of nature extends beyond the field of architecture. The South American water lily, Victoria Regia (figure 2), inspired nineteenth-century architect Sir Joseph Paxton's design of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.' This plant floats on delicate leaves up to two meters in diameter, yet it is able to support a weight of 90 kg. The underside of the leaf carries a system of hollow ribs that give both strength and buoyancy. As Paxton wrote, "Nature was the engineer, nature has provided the leaf with horizontal and traverse girders and supports that I, borrowing from it, have adopted in this building."2

Other examples include the work of Ignazio and Igo Etrich, who built the first tailless glider. Their design followed observations of the propagation of anemophilous plants, whose seeds, transported by the wind, are able to cover considerable distances. Max O. Kramer's anti-turbulence linings for submarine devices imitate the skin structure of dolphins. Even more famously, Georges de Maestral, after being struck by the way in which burdock seeds stick to the coats of animals, conceived the idea for Velcro. NASA and some US military agencies have investigated the biology of nocturnal predators, who are able to attack prey while flying in utmost silence, and the neuromuscular coordination of certain species of beetles capable of memorizing the structure of the terrain they have covered.

Evolution and Design

Through evolution, nature has refined its forms, processes, and systems over a multitude of incremental steps. The complex interplay of evolutionary forces assures the quality of the resulting system.

This lengthy process has resulted in highly adapted systems. Indeed, the principle of evolutionary convergence states that living creatures, even if they are quite different from each other, may have specific structures in common, developed as a result of adaptation. The processes of adaptation to and selection for the respective environments have determined, generation after generation, the development of analogous characteristics. For example, prehistoric ichthyosaurs, the shark, and the dolphin (reptiles, fish, and mammals, respectively) share similar characteristics. Over centuries, evolution has determined that characteristics suitable for an aquatic environment are a streamlined shape, fins in place of limbs, and a caudal fin for stability. Learning from nature, we should reference these structures as ideals to emulate in our designs.

In his book Chance and Necessity, biochemist Jacques Monod made a distinction between the two moments of the evolutionary process. The first appearance of certain structures is a chance phenomenon. Subsequently, adaptation, or refinement, is necessary if the structure is to be successful in consecutive generations. One might suggest that this is also the standard process of technological design. Bionics, however, works to reinvent the design process-to start with the necessity and look back at nature to find the answer. Thus, you might say, we can skip the chance phase and assume that nature has already tested the existing principles and mechanisms for us.

Because bionics deals with the technical transformation and application of the structures, procedures, and developmental principles of biological systems, it has become an interdisciplinary field that combines biology with engineering, architecture, and mathematics. Over the last decade, with our increased focus on nature, the field of bionics has exploded. Today features derived from nature are commonly used for design improvement-even for marketing strategies.

Bionics can be classified under five main categories:

1. Total mimicry: An object or a material or chemical structure that is indistinguishable from the natural product (for example, early attempts to construct flying machines)

2. Partial mimicry: A modified version of the natural product (for example, artificial wood)

3. Nonbiological analogy: Functional mimicry (for example, modern planes and the use of airfoils)

4. Abstraction: The use of an isolated mechanism (for example., fiber reinforcement of composites)

5. Inspiration: Used as a trigger for creativity (for example, the design for London's Crystal Palace inspired by water lily)

Bio-design: Design Solutions in a Natural State

Bio-design considers the internal and external architecture of "living machines" as extremely efficient design solutions developed to perform multiple role functions in their environments. Probably the earliest type of design methodology used by humans, examples of bio-design are abundant throughout our history.

Take the area of transportation design. The use of a fish form for a boat hull or a submarine and the form of a flying bird for the basic configuration of an airplane are not coincidental design solutions. Interestingly, these adaptations were made with very little, if any, scientific knowledge of fluid dynamics; the pioneers who designed them relied only on their conviction that the shapes of these living machines were the forms best suited to perform in their environments.

Nature's highly advanced designs have a common objective: the harmonization of form and function, achieved through the balance of internal and external forces acting on the natural system and the integration of several functions into the form.

An example of design integration is clearly observed in the analysis of the shape of a powerful swimmer such as the shark (figure 3). The shark's mouth, gills, eyes, and skin sensors are integrated into its form in such a way as to make interference with its movement minimal, yet the function of these organs is unimpeded. Its skin has many functions. It is a heat exchanger, an environmental sensing device, and a self-sealing tank, among others.

The fact that bio-designers refer to the forms or structures of the living world as design models is based on the abundant evidence that shows these forms or structures to be accurate mathematical representations of the balance between environmental and functional forces exerted on the creature, and not the result of random or spontaneous events.

The processes involved in bio-design approach can be divided into four stages:

1. Select features of a living organism that exceed current technological capabilities.

2. Derive principles and processes responsible for their superiority.

3. Develop models and methods to describe biological systems in terms useful to designers.

4. Demonstrate the feasibility of translating this knowledge into dependable and efficient hardware.

Biomechanics

Biomechanics describes the use of the laws of physics, as well as engineering concepts, to describe the motions of parts of the human body, and the forces acting on these parts, during normal daily activities. The interrelations between force and motion are important, and they must be understood and applied when conceptualizing and designing products.

Anthropometry and Ergonomics

Anthropometry can be defined as the study of human body measurement for use in human related classification and comparison, and is a part of ergonomics.

Designing for people involves making accommodations for their comfort, contentment, freedom, and productivity. The problem of accommodating all people is an ideal goal that may never be reached. Ideally, a design will work for the largest and the smallest male or female adult, but it may also have to be acceptable for use by children and, in many cases, handicapped people.

It is in these types of cases that anthropometrie science is helpful. During the course of my career, I have implemented these approaches in the development of products such as sporting tools, cooking systems, furniture, automobile interior, motorcycles, oral care and shaving systems, writing instruments and, most recently at Motorola, wearable communication devices.

Two Bionic Designs

To illustrate the power of bionics, I will explain two designs from my work within the field. The first project came from CAMP, an Italian sports equipment manufacturer, which needed a design for a multifunctional ice axe to be used in variable positions-lightweight, with very high structural strength and a powerful grip structure. The tool would be used under difficult conditions for both mountain climber and materials. In fact, it would have to suffer the extremes of 5,000-meter altitudes and temperatures on the order of -2OC. The axe needed to be strong enough to penetrate the ice, but as light as possible so that it did not fatigue the mountain climber.

The natural model I selected was the woodpecker (figure 4): a bird that chisels into wood to get at the insect larvae on which it feeds. This bird has an extraordinary aptitude for chiseling. It can do 25 hits a second, with a force of impact of 25km/mm^sup 2^.

The woodpecker's body is designed specifically for this movement. Bracing itself with its tail, which functions as a spring, it can take advantage of its center of gravity and the configuration of the bones of its skull to absorb considerable stress. Thanks to this set of characteristics, a woodpecker can utilize its whole body to increase the efficacy of the percussion. These birds do not hammer on the wood by simply moving their necks! Even more incredibly, most woodpeckers weigh only about 50Og, or a little more than a pound.

The ice axe I designed (figures 5 and 6) consists of an inner core of titanium, into which is inserted an adjustable aluminum point. These two parts are attached by a hinge inspired by the two valves of a mollusk. Special attention was dedicated to the shape of the handle. Rather than designing it to be straight, I incorporated into it a slight curve, again taking the body of the woodpecker as a model. This improves the efficiency of the blow.

The handle is lined with a knurled layer of PBT rigid polyester and is covered with an elastic layer of Rynite to provide the grip. For this component, I took inspiration from the epidermis of sharks: rigid elements overlying a soft base. The overall result is a structure that withstands heat stress, water, damp, and UV radiation.

This design strategy led CAMP to change its image, its line of products, and its marketing strategy. Emphasizing the environmental aspect of the design (figure 7) grabbed customers' interest and actually had an impact on the whole industry sector.

The second project I want to mention was a new line of rugged, shock-resistant, weather-resistant phones introduced this past December by the Motorola division that designs technology and handsets for Nextel Communications. My model here was the tough protective exoskeleton of lobsters and other crustaceans.

The outer shells of these animals are constructed of hard and soft layers of chitin combined with calcium carbonate. The layering provides a covering that protects internal organs extremely well. To achieve the same effect and to protect the phone's inner workings, our design group used hard and soft layers of polymers (chemical compounds with long repeating chains of atoms) to cover the entire exterior of the phone (figure 8). The layers are made with substances such as polycarbonate and Santoprene, a rubberlike plastic material.

Summing Up

From Ecclesiastes,, "Is there any thing of which one might say, see, this is new? Already it has existed for ages which were before us." This truth is well known to bionic designers.

As humans, our thinking tends to become clouded by our egos. Frequently, we assume we can design systems that allow us to overcome nature. As designers, we must reassess this assumption. For it is from the processes, shapes, mechanisms, and textures found in nature that we will gain the tools to realize our future.

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