Day two

The day started well with a coffee at 10 am. Next we watched a documentary about the applications of biomimicry in a botanical garden. This gave us the idea that a building for bio-based engineering should have a botanical garden located nearby. The plants could be used to stimulate the student during their biomicral design. After that we learned to publish articles on ‘being-here’ and to use more of the op possibilities the website offers. On the search to articles we discovered some very creative ways people bring biology and technology together.
The presentation of John Videler was the highlight of the day. His experience and enthusiasm gave me a new insight on what the importance of biomimicry on human life can be. The entire ecosystem can reveal us thousands of manners to coop with all kind of situations. Especially the way beas communicate with one another is really striking, but the demonstration of the waggle-dance the professer gave us, was even more impressive. John Videler pointed out how we can learn from animals concerning the use of sound.
In the afternoon we came to the point where every one of us had been waiting for. Finally the groups were divided and we could start the first brainstorm sessions. There was no time for introduction because immediately we took off with our assignment: how to integrate education and communication in a building for bio-based engineers, inspired by nature. We used the suggestions our classmates wrote down on little papers. Together we discussed the ideas and pointed out what input we could use to start from. Soon we had all so many ideas that it became maybe a bit difficult to remember the direction in which we were heading. The confusion disappeared when we introduced the method “asking why”. We went on the search to the reason why we all came up with our ideas. After discussing the different points of view and with a little help of mr. Appelman, we came up with three specific functions the building should have: generating of information, dissemination of information and storage of information. An important aspect relating to all three functions is that we want to create a social environment in which all functions could fulfill their role. For us it is important that people have a nice atmosphere where they enjoy being.
Tomorrow we will start with a presentations about which functions we’re planning to handle when we use the website ‘Ask Nature’ to get inspired by publications about bionics. Each one of us will think about at least one aspect for each function he would like to brainstorm about tomorrow.