I spent the weekend of July 27-30 at an invitational conference in Austin, Texas for senior specification writers from the nation’s leading architectural firms. The conference was equal parts speed dating for architects and manufacturers and educational presentations by “thought leaders” that shared thought provoking “best practices, case study driven data and novel approaches to the industry’s most challenging topics.” The event did not disappoint.
The conference opened with keynote speaker (the first of two for this event) Jamie Dwyer, a Certified Biomimicry Professional, biologist and “Design Strategist,” who gave a presentation about Biomimicry and the firm she works for, Biomimicry 3.8. Biomimicry is described by its founder, Janine Benyus, as looking to nature for inspiration for new inventions. Ms. Dwyer began her presentation with some fascinating examples of this (none of which she or her company had any involvement with, she pointed out.) A Japanese bullet train nose redesigned to look like a kingfisher’s beak helping it go faster and eliminating sonic booms when exiting tunnels; an anti-bacterial film, for use in hospitals and other places where surface-to-person transmission of bacteria is important to avoid, inspired by shark’s skin; and a passively cooled shopping center in Africa modeled after ancient termite mounds. She had the audience’s full attention! As the presentation went on, however, the few remaining examples became less compelling—some were a real stretch. The last half of the presentation consisted of an overabundance of jargon and buzz words (“life-friendly chemistry,” “evolve to survive,” “leverage cyclic processes,” etc.) hurled at the audience to add legitimacy to an idea lacking much in the way of supporting evidence.