Design, architechture, biomimicry, and a transdisciplinary project in the tropics

Getting a design project on the scale of developing a research station for the US Smithsonian Institute’s only research facility outside the US has got to be a thrill—especially if you’re a student looking for experience and résumé-building credits. Students from Arizona State University (ASU) got exactly that opportunity. From the Jan. 13, 2012 news release at ASU,

The graduate students [six teams of students from ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the School of Life Sciences] are partners in the traveling studio program developed by The Design School at ASU, which journeyed to Gamboa, Panama, to collaborate with the program’s partner, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

The students’ assignment was to create biomimetic architectural and product-design concepts for a scientific field station on the Gigante Peninsula, a remote spit of land located in the Panama Canal Zone.

Here’s an ASU video of the instructors and students discussing the trip and showing off some of the design concepts,

ASU biologists and designers showcase biomimetic solutions for Smithsonian from ASU News on Vimeo.

ASU is hosting an exhibition of the students’ design concepts (posters) from Jan. 24 – Feb. 9, 2012. You can get more information about that here.

For anyone who’s not able to visit the exhibition and get more details, here’s information about some of the limitations the students were dealing with (from the news release),

The challenge of designing permanent structures on the Gigante Peninsula in Panama tests architects on multiple fronts, says White [Philip White, associate professor and ecological design strategist whose focus, besides teaching, is the development of ecologically intelligent products and systems]. Buildings are subject to insect infestations and periodic flooding. Obtaining sunlight for solar power and room lighting, as well as capturing cross breezes for natural cooling, requires destructive cutting of openings in the forest canopy. Such design challenges are what engaged architectural student Adam Tate’s interest. Tate developed plans [featured in the video] for a mobile research laboratory built on a floating pontoon structure, with joints and springs modeled after elements of the trap-jaw ant.

The exhibit will showcase Tate’s design, along with a backpack inspired by the musculoskeletal structure of the three-toed sloth, an umbrella derived from bats, which will resist wind torsion, and a design for a photovoltaic canopy based on lobster eyes – perfect for the challenges of the low light environment of the jungle.

This is not the only biomimicry project at ASU (from the news release),

Scientists at ASU have been using concepts of biomimicry in various studies across the campuses. For example, Ana Moore and Thomas Moore, both Regents’ Professors at ASU in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, have work that is funded by the National Science Foundation to use bio-inspired approaches to improve solar energy conversion. One of their projects is a photovoltaic cell that utilizes design concepts drawn from photosynthesis in leaves. Scientists Jeff Yarger and Gregory Holland also are deconstructing the molecular makeup of spider silk hoping to create stronger, light-weight materials, such as bulletproof vests and artificial tendons.

I hope one day to see some these designs taken from concept to product.

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