At the heart of the biodesign curriculum is encouraging a deeper understanding of how nature works: how it forms and uses materials, how form follows function, how all life is integrated in nested and overlapping cycles.

To explore nature’s technologies then, is to study how nature designs itself, and to use that as a springboard for human design. Activities include culturing organisms for material creation, created metabolisms in simple chemistry-type set-ups, making forms that mimic organismal design from basic 3D materials and creating microcosms and ecosystem set-ups using fish tanks, pumps and other wet-lab, grow-lab type equipment.

Scroll down for "nature's technologies" examples:
 

The presence of plants has an immediate effect on people. Greenwalls have gained in popularity in recent years as a way to incorporate large square footage of plants and high visual impact while taking up minimal floorspace.

The 21’x7’ greenwall in our makerspace is a dominant feature allowing us to bring in the biophilic element of visual connection to nature, creating a backdrop to all lab activities. While grant funding allowed us to purchase a state of the art hydroponic system, many plans are available to serve a range of budgets and locations. Green walls teach valuable skills not only by having students participate in their design and creation, but also as they dive deeper into understanding the requirements of plants to grow and thrive.

Key questions in addition to budget to consider are:

1. What size is appropriate given the available space and the cost and time to build and maintain? What heights are appropriate to accommodate watering and tending the plants? You may also wish to consider having students involved in the maintenance of your green wall by including tool storage, step-stools, clipboards for logging care, etc. into the overall plan.
    
2. What is the natural light regime in the space? Many options for artificial lighting are available, however, considerations of energy use and bulb replacements affect cost and maintenance requirements.
    
3. What is the availability of fresh water and electricity in the space? Can recirculating irrigation be used, via solar powered pumps? If so, you may be able to design a hydroponic system, or keep the wall watered through drip irrigation. Hand watering allows students to directly connect to the well-being and care for the wall.
    
4. What type of plants are you hoping to grow: flowers, edibles, or just foliage? The latter will be the easiest for those with little or no gardening experience: many house plants such as croton, spider plants or pothos grow year-round in low light conditions and are easy to maintain.
    
5. Is the wall subject to seasonal temperature/lighting shifts? How will these be managed?

A recent trip to the Philadelphia airport highlighted what could be done with old pallets and discarded cans and soda bottles.
 

Aquaponics is an ideal inclusion in a biodesign makerspace, as it makes visible the interrelationships between components in an ecosystem, models design that works with nature's technologies, and provides for a strong biophilic element. Our designs use relatively simple one-pump flows that support fish, bacteria and plants in both grow beds and deep water culture. Encouraging students to understand how decomposing bacteria turn toxins from fish waste into nutrients, which the plants then absorb, thus cleaning the water for the fish, demonstrates ecological webs and feedback loops. It provides a model for using biology to address issues such as water pollution and food security as the system can grow protein in the form of fish such as tilapia or perch, as well as herbs and vegetables.

There are many design plans for aquaponic systems available on the web. For our plans, one of which is custom and one of which uses off the shelf pieces and simple construction, click here.

Materials are a critical element in design, and choosing materials that work with healthy ecosystems is a critical element of biodesign. These biomaterials take two basic forms: natural metabolisms, and created metabolisms.

Natural metabolisms rely on the biochemistry of organisms to create a material that is then repurposed as is for human use. The simplest natural metabolism to understand is perhaps wood, but a quick exploration of human making prior to the industrial era, and even still today, yields many more: cotton, flax, hemp, silk, horn, reed, bark, leather, wool, shell, to name a few. There are many new materials from natural metabolism being explored as well, including kombucha leather and mycocomposites, where organisms are cultivated in the lab or classroom specifically to grow materials for design use.

Created metabolisms use feedstocks from organisms, such as agar from algae, starch from potato or corn, and vegetable glycerin, mixed and often heated to create new materials, often in the form of bioplastics.

More information, including recipes, can be found on the biomaterials page.