Day 1

For a person that comes from an engineer background is difficult not to have some particular expectations from a course called Biomimicry & Design. My first day in this course was a complete surprise and showed me a great potential to learn a humanistic side that I didn’t consider before for this area.

During the walking tour around TU Delft campus, I could appreciate the modern buildings with interesting designs, what fascinated me the most was how the spaces are functionalized with details that invite the students to sit and work in a comfortable environment, the colors, the shape of the several chairs around every corner, the possibility to select a place to work in group or alone and near places to find snacks and coffee.
The first lecture about the importance of presence and witnessing was completely different from what I was expecting of a biomimicry design program. However, I found it really interesting and at some point complementary to what I was observing earlier inside the campus buildings. The activity that we did in groups after the lecture was at the beginning confusing, but we came out with a creative result that helped to clarify the concepts given during the lecture about the YUTPA framework.
During the being-here website activity, at the beginning I found it also confusing, and I’m still not completely sure of how the articles in the web page are going to help me find inspiration to look for solutions and ideas for own main project, nevertheless I’m looking forward to find it out during the rest of the course and I’m eager to learn this humanistic part that I wasn’t expecting to find in this course.
The last lecture was more related to what I was expecting, contrast between technology and nature and how we can be inspired by nature to improve our engineering solutions or to solve problems. I’m looking forward to see what new surprises and challenges will bring me the rest of the Athens week.

Chacon