InterfaceFlor, ecology and biomimicry

Visiting the InterfaceFlor factory in Eindhoven is a great experience for everybody who wants to know a little more about biomimicry. Visitors will get an introductory lecture, a guided tour and a “pressure cooker” workshop about biomimicry.

The introduction lecture is interesting because it starts with sketching the design approach in a rather abstract way and then gives a lot of examples that make the matter clear. It's basically all about Life's Principles, this is a set of guidelines an eco-friendly design should meet as much as possible. Biomimicry is only one way of designing Life's Principle-compatible things.

The biomimicry design approach consists of three basic steps. The first step is called “Scoping”, it’s the exploring step. Scoping is all about determining the real problem you’re trying to solve and finding a way to link it to nature (to biologize it). The second step is “Creating” step tries to find particular mechanisms or organisms in nature on which the design will be based on. Once those mechanisms or organisms are found, trying to translate their special behavior into a real technical design is the hardest part. Consulting specialists really is a must in this stadium of the process. The last step is the “Evaluating” step and this is where you can compare your design to nature. The design has to have some characteristics that are typical for biomimicry design, so you can check on those.
Of course, this is not a linear process, iteration between the different steps is required in order to get a satisfying, biomimicry-based design.
There are countless examples of biomimicry, like a train with the shape of a birds beak to reduce drag and pressure in tunnels, passive cooling of large buildings based on the structure of a termite hill, the wingtip design of high-performance airplanes and wind turbines is also based on the wings of real birds. At InterfaceFlor, they succeeded in making carpet tiles that do not require any toxic glue to attach them to a surface. The tiles attach to the floor by using tiny hooks, just like a gecko uses to climb walls.

As an example of integrating this biomimcry and ecology ideology in a real company, InterfaceFlor gives you a guided tour through the factory. The entire production process is explained and a lot of attention is given to the measures taken to reduce the ecological footprint of the company. They try to use modern techniques for cutting the carpet into tiles to reduce the amount wasted material. Recycling is also very important, they’re using as much recycled or natural resources as possible. They also try to reduce the wasted products on the end of the production line by recycling them and using their different components in the beginning of the production line. They really try to close that circle.

The visit ends with a hands-on, “pressure cooker” workshop in which small groups are challenged to design something. My team was challenged to work around the keyword “Play”, try to relate that keyword to smart grids and integrate is with the other basic functions of a living community (shelter, transport, water, waste and food). Because we are three persons in a group, we decided to divide the work and all write an article about one specific aspect of the design process. Alessio has written something about the identification of the problem and the biologizing of it, Areti’s entitled to the more specific identification of the different functions and parameters of the design and I have written an article about the actual designing step.

To formulate a conclusion of the information given to me during the visit, I think it is actually really strange that biomimicry isn’t more integrated in the common design approaches. After all, nature and the organisms living in nature are the results of millions and millions of years of evolution. They are in fact that efficient that it’s actually a great idea to use nature as a mentor.