What’s your biggest design challenge, and how would nature solve it?
Check out our new version of the Biomimicry Taxonomy, updated to reflect the new, interactive features of AskNature.org.
The Taxonomy is a classification system we developed to organize biological strategies by the functions they serve, such as: How does nature store water? Save energy? Protect from impact? We built it to organize the data in AskNature and make it easier to search. It’s our master reference tool designed for innovators like you.
One way to “ask nature” for design guidance is to break your challenges down into their fundamental functions—the specific outcomes your design needs to achieve. Identifying the function, “distribute liquids,” for example, and then searching for those keywords on AskNature, will provide multiple potential solutions on how nature performs that function, which you can then apply to your own challenge.
So although we can’t call nature on the phone, or text her our questions, or read her mind, we can still consult our ecological mentors, and find “time-tested” solutions to our greatest design challenges.
Our Taxonomy is printable as a US letter-sized PDF in both color and greyscale.