Every few weeks EDI fellows are split into three groups and each group is assigned a chapter from the book Adapt by Amina Khan. This blog post will discuss one of the presentations from the past week. The topic of the presentation was biomimicry, the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes. Patrick McElroy EDI’19, Frances Harrington EDI’19, Connor Holland EDI’19, Kevin Smedley EDI’19, and AJ Keels EDI’21 put together a very appealing presentation.

Their presentation specifically focused on current examples and potential implementations of biomimicry in cities around the world. They provided several examples of biomimicry in our Hampton Roads area, including a CHKD hospital in Norfolk and the Brock

Center in Virginia Beach. The CHKD hospital displays fish on the floor in part the hospital, and the fish react to any passerbys by avoiding their steps and swimming away. This simple implementation of nature in our community helps to calm down nervous kids before a procedure or provide a fun distraction for kids walking away from one. Another example, the Brock Center, was built next to Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach and the natural scene coupled with the

extremely green power of the building promote the center’s mission to make the world more eco-friendly. This tribute to the natural world implements biomimicry in the sense that the building itself was built near the beach. Being surrounded by

nature further represents the foundation’s commitment to making the world more like nature, the same goal biomimicry attempts to accomplish. Each of these buildings act as optimistic precedents for a more natural world in the future.