2nd Day InterfaceFlor

BioMimicry, Mission Zero

At the factory of InterfaceFlor in Scherpenzeel we immersed the topic of Biomimicry and got to know some impressive examples of how animals and plants adapt to survive in a changing environment. To live in a changing context means your equilibrium always adapts.
In the history of mankind it seems like we always try to enshrine things, which means they are static and inflexible and not able to change or adapt. As one consequence we are bounded on firmly fixed ideas and there is no space and no possibility for us to change our minds without an enormous exertion of force.
Biomimicry shows us a way to learn from nature, to be more flexible in our straight way of thinking. A european moth for example changed its intensity of colour during the different stages of air pollution during the last century which shows us the adaption in a changing context. A sloth could lead us the way how to handle our energy resources, a mongrovetree shows us how the change of size can provide us and our environment shelter. The lesson is cear: the question is about how we can pick up things from the context.
The producing factory Interfaceflor orientated its products also on examples from nature: instead of using glue to pick the carpets on the floor they developed a special system inspired by a frog to make the carpet sticky. In addition they are a very environment friendly company and set themselves the goal to be a zero emission factory by 2020.

Franziska Scheuermann