Bio Design: Nature + Science + Creativity

by William Myers (Contributor), Paola Antonelli (Foreword)

For centuries, designers and artists have looked to nature for inspiration and materials, but only recently have they developed the ability to alter and incorporate living organisms or tissues into their work. This startling development, at the intersection of biology and design has created new aesthetic possibilities and helps address a growing urgency to build and manufacture ecologically. "Bio Design" surveys recent design and art projects that harness living materials and processes, presenting bio-integrated approaches to achieving sustainability, innovations enabled by biotechnology, and provocative experiments that deliberately illustrate the dangers and opportunities in manipulating life for human ends. As the first publication to focus on this new phenomenon and closely examine how it fits into the history of architecture, art and industrial design, this volume surveys this shift and contextualizes it through comparisons to previous historic transitions in art and design practices, clarifying its implications for the future. A reference for students and teachers of art, architecture, industrial design and engineering, "Bio Design" will also introduce the subject to a broad audience.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Science, Biology, Architecture, Biography, Art

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Am Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a large compendium of recent bioengineering design projects or ideas: e.g. an eco-friendly brick, pigeons that poop soap instead of toxins, a bridge formed out of tree roots, algae as biofuel, oysters as water filters, concrete that "heals" itself, etc. It's very well-organised, and each project comes with a concise description and many photos. At the back of the book are interviews with some of the designers/scientists involved in certain projects.

I found this a thoroughly entertaining and interesting read. We get a good variation of selected projects - from those very practical and addressing urgent needs (e.g. sustainability, food, fuel), to others that are artistic (there's a whole section on it), futuristic (bio-buildings & cities for instance) or fantastical in nature (like the one where pigeons poop soap). And despite the complicated science behind it all, each project was explained simply enough for the layman to understand.

A well-recommended read for those interested in this field.

[Jiaying · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In designers' ability to build scenarios and prototypes of behaviour lies a power that they should protect and cherish, and that will become more important in the future."
Designers thus in a way remind of scientists too, just as a visual problem solver with rather similar skillsets and a humble vision to create things that bring about cultural/societal shifts.

This book is really awe-inspiring as it presents speculative case studies, some spanning from more than a decade ago. Sometimes I get amazed at the power of design in itself and how this discipline has evolved into the realm of life sciences etc. It has the ability to transcend boundaries into other fields while affirming "the demonstrative power of art and the realistic possibilities of design."

This book contains these few main chapters:
1. The Architectural Hybrid

2. Ecological Object Engineering
Few striking projects include
- Bacteria grown clothes
- The use of Biofabrication process (coupled with the possibilities of synthetic biology) in fashion
- Bioprocessing (i.e.) exploring plant cells and its potential to be used as design tools

3. Experimental functions
This section presents an interest in speculative design, experimental technologies. It's one of my favourite section too, with some projects aiming straight into the moral sphere.
- Biological Atelier (growing objects in the lab from our own cells or those of animals foretells a new age for personalised and renewable fashion)
- Design Fictions (The rise of synthetic biology brings ethical questions about the appropriation of life and the alteration of self to the fore) touching on issues of post humanity.
- Bacterioptica (A living chandelier that allows owners to experiment with the lighting effects offered by different bacteria)
- Prospect Resort (In time it may be possible for individuals afflicted with particular conditions to help search for their own cures)
- Blood bank

4. Dynamic Beauty
- Genetic Heirloom Series by Revital Cohen and Tour Van Balen (this project really touched my heart) where inherited conditions are viewed as keepsakes, such as gold jewelry.

5. Profiling programs and collaborations

[Anne-Sofie Belling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of different bio-technological / design fiction projects that explore the merger of science, nature and technology.

[Phil Gough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of Biodesign projects from multiple perspectives.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. WOW. I’m absolutely blown away but the IDEAS here and the effort that went into their clever arrangement and articulation. Simply W O W

[Chloe Glynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introductory essay on pages 10 - 17 is essential. It's a historical trajectory to the capacity and necessity of "biodesign," a more holistic approach to the life and death of design objects than the imitation of form implied by the biomimicry popularized in the collapsing half of the 20th century.

The rest is more picture book, but the so small font is sometimes the essence of an entry. Some chapters orient toward "solutions." Others favor provocation. Concepts and prototypes dominate functionality. Aesthetics and imagination dominate science. This is a design collection with a full-blooming diversity of form, a little perversity, a dash of humor, and the "breathless optimism" of dreaming a century for life.

[Katherine Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is beautiful – chock full of projects that illustrate “the hybrid frontier”, where living organisms are directly integrated into design. The author seems to reflect a serious misunderstanding of biomimicry in the framing of his own focus area (it is not “beyond biomimicry”, but rather fundamentally different from it). Still, the projects featured are stunning in their aesthetics, and challenging in some of their approaches – how much can we “engineer” biology before it is un-natural? I was left feeling equal parts inspired and freaked-out.

[Wenny H · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating catalogue of things to come.