Natures Unifying Patterns

Brian Ha
Natures unifying patterns are basic principles that lets us see how
nature functions on its own. These principles help inspire us to apply these
techniques into our own community. There are 10 different principles: Nature
uses only the energy it needs and relies on freely available energy; Nature
recycles all materials; Nature is resilient to disturbances; Nature rewards
cooperation; Nature runs on information; Nature optimizes rather than
maximizes; Nature uses chemistry and materials that are safe for living
beings; Nature is locally attuned and responsive; Nature builds using
abundant resources, incorporating rare resources only sparingly; Nature uses
shape to determine functionality. These principles basically explain different
areas of what nature does and how it functions in its own natural ways. Each
principle has its own function and contribution to nature and by taking those
ideas, we impose those techniques into our biomimicry design challenge. Our
group looked deeply into the problem of food spoilage and the lack of fresh
food due to the distance from farms to the big consumers. By looking into
these principles, it helped us design our system to bring fresh products
closer to homes.
We chose to design a garden box and mimic some of the things we see
in nature to help make the garden a more efficient system. We mimicked the
idea of thorns on roses and eggshells. The thorns on roses play a huge role
for roses because their job is to protect the rose from insects or animals from
eating them. Our design is to place thorns on the outer region of the garden
to protect the garden from pesticides and insects from eating the produce.
The idea of eggshells is also a way to protect the garden but from more
specific animals like snails and slugs. Instead of taking a regular eggshell, we
came up with the idea of crushing it to create the sharp edges that would
pierce the their skins and damage their bodies. A small idea we added was to
make the eggshells out of metal to provide more sunlight to plants off its
reflection and when it heats, it will repel most insects away. We also came up
with a side idea of having tubes that are placed inside soil to provide
compost and nutrients for the plants. The pipes will constantly be filled with
compost and nutritional products which will be pressed down into the garden
which provides nutrients and keeps the plants healthy throughout every
season. Our system consists of three principles of how nature connects to
our design.
Nature uses shape to determine functionality.
Nature uses shape or form, rather than added material and energy, to
meet functional requirements. Stated another way, form follows function.
This allows an organism or ecosystem to accomplish what it needs to do
using a minimum of energy and resources. We mimicked the shape and
function of thorns that we see on roses. The shape of a thorn is usually
pointed and sharp which leads to its function to protect that rose from being
eaten by any insect or animal that comes across. We took that idea and

applied it to our garden design. The thorns will be placed around the
perimeter of the box to act as a barricade to protect the plants from being
eaten by any bugs or pesticides.
Nature is locally attuned and responsive.
Chances of survival increase when individuals are good at recognizing
local conditions and opportunities and locating and managing available
resources. Survival also depends on appropriately responding to information
garnered from the local environment. Organisms and ecosystems in a given
location evolved in direct response to local environmental conditions. The
main problem that were focusing on is that fresh produce is too far away
and spoils when transported to where most of the consumers are. Our idea is
to create an efficient way for consumers to have readily access to fresh
produce in their homes. The design contains a box which is planted with
whatever sorts of products they need and grow them at home. The
householders would have to manually keep the plants healthy by providing
nutrients and compost through the tubes that are placed inside the garden.
The box would also have to come with the idea of metallic eggshells on the
outside that act as a barrier for bugs/insects. This idea is locally attuned and
responsive because were fixing a problem of having fresh produce too far
away and bringing the production locally in homes.
Nature recycles all materials.
In nature, one organisms waste or decomposing body becomes a
source of food and materials for other organisms. While we talk about
recycling, what happens in nature is more appropriately called upcycling. In
order to provide nutrients and compost, the consumers would use leftover
scraps and food for the plants. Our garden will have these pipes that are
placed within the soil which is where you place and press in all the compost
that will provide nutrients for the plants that will last a whole season. There
are only certain materials that are healthy for plants like orange peels, apple
cores, leave trimmings, etc., anything that is able to be broken down and
decomposed. These materials will be broken down in a matter of time by
fungi and bacteria which is how the nutrients is provided for the soil and
plants. This is basically the process of recycling because youre using
materials youve grown and using the leftovers from what youve consumed
and use those as compost and nutrients for plants to grow more products.