FEEDBACK FROM PRESENTING MY DRAFT PRESENTATION

Image from "Biomimicry in Architecture" - Terrapin Bright Green

https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/blog/2017/02/biomimicry-versus-biophilia/

Last week, we presented our draft presentations to some reviewers from the Honors Committee. The slides I presented are in the last post I uploaded before this one. Some of the main notes I received from the professors were:

• Focus on either biomimicry or biophilia, not both
• Focus on understanding the topic, not trying to contribute a groundbreaking idea. As undergraduate researchers, we need to concentrate on truly understanding the topic we are looking at and learning how to explain it and its architectural significance in an easily digestible way. 
• There isn't necessarily a need to pick a specific architect to narrow my research as I did. 
• If I do want to focus on an architect, Moshe Safdie may not be a great choice. There are other architects that are better representatives for biomimicry and sustainable design.
• Look into Ken Yeang's architecture, and his books over ecological design
• Look into Janine Benyus and understand her discussions on biomimicry. 

The feedback was very helpful. I felt slightly discouraged because I think a lot of my feedback was in reference to how Moshe Safdie was a poor choice for my topic, and I very recently decided to focus on him. However, I think the points made were valid, and it would be helpful for me to step back from focusing on an architect to better understand the topic at hand. I have decided I want to focus on biomimicry instead of biophilia, as it is the initial topic I was interested in, the topic I am less familiar with, and the topic I am very excited to learn more about. I had read snippets of Janine Benyus' writing before, but I intend to delve deeper into her writing now. She is one of the leaders of the biomimicry movement, commonly considered one of the big names when it comes to biomimicry in general. I would also like to learn more about Ken Yeang's ecological design. I checked out some books from the Fine Arts Library after my presentation that focus more on biomimicry and its significance to architecture. I'll list them at the end of my blog post. 

Overall, I think the mock presentation was helpful in focusing my topic more. I think I'm still struggling with what my final contribution/project would really be, but for now I'm just going to focus on understanding my topic more and hopefully the project implementation will follow. 

That's all for now!

Below are the books I checked out/purchased this week:

"Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature"

Janine Benyus

"Biomimetics for Architecture"

Jan Knippers, Ulrich Schmid, Thomas Speck (Eds.)

"Built to Grow: Blending Architecture and Biology"

Barbara Imhof, Petra Gruber (Eds.)

"Architecture Follows Nature: Biomimetic Principles For Innovative Design"

Ilaria Mazzoleni

"Biomimicry in Architecture"

Michael Pawlyn

"Biomimetics in Architecture"

Petra Gruber