The Three Levels of Biomimicry
Defining the Levels
It can be helpful to explore biomimicry at different levels, depending on what you are designing for.
Watch Defining the levels in full screen.
Practice identifying levels
Did you manage to answer correctly? If not, that’s fine, check the footnote. [1]
Watch this video and answer the question below.
How did that go? Did you get it right? Do you want to know more about the answer? Check the footnote. [2]
Although we have given examples of biomimicry for all levels, it is important to remember that sometimes designs incorporate multiple levels, or multiple inspirations from the same level. In some cases, the distinction between the levels may not be as clear. This is primarily meant to be used as a guideline for the various ways you can explore biomimicry.
References
Aziz, M. S., & el Sherif, A. Y. (2016). Biomimicry as an approach for bio-inspired structure with the aid of computation. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 55(1), 707–714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2015.10.015
California Academy of Sciences (CAS) Living Roof. (2020, January 24). Greenroofs.Com. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.greenroofs.com/projects/california-academy-of-sciences-cas-living-roof/
- The filtration system is inspired by many organisms that interact with each other and their environment (an entire forest). The bird safe glass is inspired by the behaviour of a spider to create a web. Remember, it is not inspired by the spider itself, but by a behaviour that the spider has. This is unlike the space camera that is inspired directly by the structure of the moth's eye. ↵
- If the building was inspired by the termite itself (part or whole), it would be organism level. A termite mound also does not represent, for example, an entire desert ecosystem with interactions between multiple organisms/cycles/processes. Therefore, this best falls under behaviour level emulation as the mound is an example of something the termite makes (part of its behaviour). ↵
