Biomimicry: Biology inspires innovation

At the 12th Hot Topics event we discussed biomimicry - the use of Nature, with its 3.8 billion years of trial and error, as inspiration to find solutions to today's problems and creative processes.

Inspired by Nature, many of today’s creative, design and engineering problems are finding solutions in biology. Starting with the classic example of Velcro developed in the 1950’s, biomimicry has inspired a plethora of modern examples such as Michael Phelps’ shark-inspired swim suit and many of the features on the new Airbus 380.

In the future, with engineers and designers looking for ever more efficient and sustainable solutions, will biomimicry have an ever more important role in innovation? At this Hot Topics event, our specialist panel - Rob Kesseler, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, Alex Parfitt, BAE Systems, Denise DeLuca, Swedish Biomimetics 3000 and panel chair Will Pearson, Director of Technology, Ravensbourne - debated how ideas flow from biology to product design, what tools and institutions enable this process, and how specialists in art, design, architecture, engineering and biology are bought together to solve tomorrow’s problems.