ACADIA 2008: Silicon + Skin. Biological Processes and Computation

In nature, as has been said many times, shape is cheaper than material. The biological world places little emphasis on excessive form or expensive materials. Furthermore, there exist only a few chemical substances in biological and natural systems, and they are generally constructed using efficient processes of formation. Success from a design point of view depends not only on what biological entities and natural artifacts are made of, but rather on how they came into being. Self organization and other natural formation processes typically demonstrate integration between from, growth and behavior.

In design, top-down approaches to the generation of form and its performance still dominate our discourse as the domains of geometry, fabrication and performance remain fragmented across scales and methods. Biologically inspired computational processes are offering an alternative to such traditions. Bottom-up computational protocols allow for the incorporation of local conditions and requirements into the design process as a whole. Biomimetic design supported by computational tools appears to promise exciting directions in this milieu.

Some of the greatest achievements are directly or indirectly informed by nature. Silicon and skin are merging as artificial and synthetic design processes that take inspiration from nature. The multiple disciplines of design have for centuries converged with the natural sciences to emerge at the field of Biomimetics. Fields such as robotics, mechanical and structural engineering, product design, bio-medical design and engineering are all looking carefully at natural and biological systems to draw inspiration well beyond the point of metaphor. The design objective of these fields is often similar to those which underlie processes in nature. These objectives promote design functionality, energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness among other values and considerations.

Interdisciplinary by definition, the field of Biomimetics has promoted a new sensibility to design made apparent across multiple scales of the design process, its artifacts, and their performance within the ever-changing environment. Recent initiatives within practice and academia which research and develop computational approaches and applications for the generation and evaluation of such artifacts are slowly turning this sensibility into a prosperous and lively discourse.