MODA’s “Learning from Nature” Virtual Exhibition Showcases Biomimetic Designs

New exhibition invites visitors to learn about biomimicry and how designing based on nature’s lessons can help us address climate change.

Atlanta, GA — August 3, 2020 — “Learning from Nature: The Future of Design” is a free virtual exhibition at MODA, the Museum of Design Atlanta, developed in partnership with the Biomimicry Institute. The exhibition demonstrates how designers of all ages are finding sustainable solutions to challenges through biomimicry, a practice known as emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies in human designs. Visitors can view all the innovations, many of which could help us address climate change, by touring the exhibition space in 3-D.

“This exhibition is part of a larger MODA initiative, 2020: The Year of Climate and Change,” says Veronica Klucik, who curated the exhibition along with Malaysia Marshall. “It highlights the critical role design will play in addressing climate change and its impacts and shows that applying lessons from nature can transform, in the best possible way, how we design.”

Visitors to the exhibition will learn about biomimicry and its role in design by exploring numerous examples that span everything from products we use every day to large architectural projects to systems-level challenges, like allocating server space or removing microplastics from the ocean. The latter is a problem that is being tackled by a team of students from The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Emulating the way manta rays and basking sharks trap and eat minute food particles, the team designed Floating Coconet, a way to trap and remove plastic pollution in rivers before it can enter the ocean. The team was also a finalist in the 2020 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge and participated in the Biomimicry Institute’s Launchpad program.

The urban built environment is responsible for about 30% of annual global greenhouse emissions, and biomimicry has a huge role to play in making both old and new buildings as efficient as possible. Phalanx Insulation, another Launchpad alumni team, took inspiration from multiple organisms, including Saharan silver ants, camels, and wheat, to come up with a three-layered facade shading system to reduce heat loads in existing buildings. The exhibition also features two building solutions designed by Exploration Architecture. The first is a conceptual biomimetic office building, designed to produce energy and be self-heating, self-cooling, and self-ventilating, and lit with natural light. The second is the BioRock Pavilion, a building designed to be grown by passing an electric current through seawater and causing the deposition of minerals made from atmospheric carbon onto a steel frame.

Biomimicry can also play a direct role in conservation, as exemplified by Ornilux Mikado by Arnold Glas. Tens of millions of birds die every year when they hit architectural glass. Ornilux Mikado features a UV-reflective coating, inspired by reflective threads found in orb weaver spider webs. Birds see the coating rather than reflected sky, thus preventing them from trying to fly through the glass. Humans, of course, cannot see UV light, so the coating doesn’t interfere with a building’s aesthetic.

“We were thrilled to partner with MODA on this broad-reaching biomimicry exhibition,” said Beth Rattner, Executive Director of the Biomimicry Institute. “Design and science museums are critical to educating the public and showing the potential of nature-inspired design. Exhibitions like this one demonstrate successful solutions, and they also provide a vision for the future and inspiration for the next generation of designers and engineers.”

“Learning from Nature” also features nature-inspired designs related to clothing, transportation, energy, water collection, and more, and is well worth exploring through a virtual visit. A unique highlight is the inclusion of drawing studies and nature-inspired solutions from students — the next generation of designers and engineers. Student designs featured in the exhibition include building insulation inspired by polar bear fur and a water harvesting device inspired by the water collection strategies of Namib beetles and desert rhubarb.

To explore the new virtual exhibit, visit museumofdesign.org/learning-from-nature.

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About the Biomimicry Institute 

The Biomimicry Institute is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 that empowers people to seek nature-inspired solutions for a healthy planet. To advance the solution process, the Institute offers AskNature.org, a free online tool that contains strategies found in nature and examples of ways they are used in design. It also hosts a Biomimicry Global Design Challenge and Youth Design Challenge to support project-based education; a Biomimicry Launchpad program and Ray of Hope Prize® for entrepreneurship to bring designs to market; and connects innovators through the Global Biomimicry Network.

About the Museum of Design Atlanta

The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) advances the understanding and appreciation of design as the convergence of creativity and functionality through exhibitions, education, and programming for visitors of all ages. The work of its staff and board of directors is structured by two research questions: “What is the museum of the 21st century?” and “Can a design museum change the world?” and pursues MODA’s vision of a world that celebrates design as a creative force that inspires change, transforms lives and makes the world a better place.

Media Contact:

Lex Amore

Biomimicry Institute, Communications Director

[email protected]

415-800-1407