Upcoming Event: AuthentiCity!

Amy will be speaking at the following event: please join us to learn more about how we can design more sustainable, resilient cities by looking to the Genius of our Place! RSVP here!

5th Annual Urban Innovation Symposium: AuthentiCity

YOU'RE INVITED Friday, January 30, 2015 PLEASE RSVP to participate in the exchange of innovative planning methods and ideas that create authentic city spaces and enliven urban life from the ground up! This two-part event will feature presentations and panel discussions with local strategists who foster places that maintain cities' and neighborhoods' cultural and environmental identities. During the daytime session, from 9:00 AM - 1:00PM at Gallery 400 in UIC's Art and Exhibition Hall,professionals from around the region provide insight into cutting-edge ideas in physical planning, design, housing, and economic development.  CUPPA Dean Michael Pagano will be headlining as our keynote speaker to talk about the Obama Library proposal on UIC's campus.  Rounding out the daytime section will be a panel of urban planners who take to blogging as a way to advocate their points of view, moderated by UIC professor Charles Hoch. At the evening event, from 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM at the Royal George Theatre's Black Box Theaterspace, urban professionals deliver presentations in the fast-moving, visually-oriented PechaKucha®  (PK) format in an informal atmosphere, encouraging attendees to get to know each other and enjoy complimentary appetizers and cash bar.   Open and free to the public. RSVP | DAYTIME SESSION RSVP | EVENING SESSION For more information, please visit www.UPPSA.org or e-mail us aturbaninnovatesym@gmail.com

Happy New Year, Biomimicry Chicago!

Global Biomimics Gather!

I just got back from the Biomimicry Network Leaders gathering in San Francisco - what an amazing experience! It felt like coming home to my extended family. A few quick highlights:

Photo by Alexandra Ramsden, Biomimicy Puget Sound

• Biomimicry.org will be THE place to go for global network information, so be sure to bookmark and follow the page! As a network, we will have great access to post our events to this global stage, so contact Rachel or Amy if you want your event to be recognized.
• We started the process of mapping our network and how ours relates to the global network, so be sure to contact us if you want to be included! 
• We're collaborating on a global stage to share best practices for everything from genius of place and education initiatives to how to set up a network! So if you have a question or initiative you'd like to pursue, contact us!
• We keep learning more about the global design challenge and will be planning some events around this in the coming year - visit the global design challenge site to learn more!  
• Biomimicry San Diego network leader Tamsin Woolley-Barker's kickstarter campaign to fund her book "SuperOrganizations: Nature's Game-Changing Guide To Faster, Smarter, More Valuable Companies" was fully funded! So keep contributing to get your copy!  

I'd love to tell you all about it, so contact me to learn more!

Amy 

How Does Nature...? A Lesson in Biomimicry

Find out how to use AskNature to guide sustainable solutions in this new webinar!

Wednesday, November 12
9 AM MST (11 AM EST/8 AM PST)

Do you have a tough design challenge that you want to look to nature to help solve? AskNature, the world's most comprehensive catalog of nature's solutions to design challenges, can help!

Join the Biomimicry Institute's Gretchen Hooker and Jen Schill on November 12 at 9 AM MST (11 AM EST/8 AM PST) to learn how to use AskNature to identify sustainable solutions. During this one-hour webinar, brought to you by the Disruptive Innovation Festival, you'll learn how to use AskNature to get inspired while exploring a design challenge and gaining a greater understanding of biomimicry.

Don't miss this opportunity for a step-by-step introduction to AskNature and how you can apply this tool to design a healthier planet.

Learn more and register here.

New workshop announced! Biomimicry and the Built Environment

We're looking forward to seeing folks at the Prairie Walk tonight! 6pm on the grounds of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum! If you can't make it and still want to learn more, be sure to check out Prairie Lab's upcoming 3 CEU workshop on October 17th!

Lurie Gardens. Photo by @amycoffman

Biomimicry and the Built Environment: Nature’s Design Strategies

"Nature is inherently resilient and restorative. Learn how to unlock and apply the science behind Nature’s design strategies and look at challenges in the built environment through a biomimicry lens. Biomimicry, the practice of learning from nature to solve human problems, is emerging as a powerful tool for sustainable design and systemic transformation. Applied at a variety of scales, from individual products to buildings and organizations, biomimicry brings nature's 3.8 billion years of innovation experience to the table to redefine the nature of design.

This 3 CEU course, led by Prairie Lab instructors, includes an introduction to the practice of biomimicry, a look at Life’s Principles as applied to challenges in the built environment, and a guided tour of our local prairie ecosystem where you will experience nature’s locally-attuned design strategies for yourself. Through lecture and hands-on, experiential exercises, you will explore functions in nature, from water and energy management to fostering connection to “place,” and translate them to the language of design. The biomimicry lens provides a useful perspective and design inspiration for your LEED, Living Building Challenge, and Net Zero projects."

To register, click here!

Sponsored by USGBC-Illinois and Prairie Lab, LLC. 

Stories from the Prairie: Applying the “Genius of our Place” to Unlock Nature’s Strategies for Resilient, Restorative Design

Nature is inherently resilient and restorative while our human systems are...not. But what could we learn about the nature of design by studying the science of nature? By exploring our native organisms and ecosystems with a biomimicry lens, we can unlock nature’s locally-attuned design strategies and begin to apply them to our context: creating buildings, businesses and communities that are inherently sustainable, naturally.

Lurie Gardens. Photo by @amycoffman

In the other articles in this series, I wrote about the importance of connecting with nature and ways to do so. In this last (for a time, at least) article in this series, I share some stories of what I've learned in my exploration of the tallgrass prairie as well as a vision for a more sustainable and resilient world: one where our choices are based on working with and leveraging local context and energy flows rather than fighting against them.

It’s time to start thinking differently.

Like Wes Jackson who was inspired by the prairie to rethink industrial agriculture to Allan Savory who emulates grazing for holistic land management and Gerould Wilhelm who emulates the prairie in landscape design, each of these innovators look to the prairie ecosystem as inspiration for alternatives to standard practice. Doing so, they were able to (re)think standard practices, creating more low-maintenance, cost-effective, and biodiverse alternatives. And you can do this too.

Visit The B-Collaborative's Blog to learn more!

Design Competition: Biomimicry and Food Scarcity

I'm actually not quite sure if I've ever heard of a cooler competition or idea. And can The Land Institute enter it even though they've been working on this issue for decades? Let's get our collective thinking caps on! - Amy

Big Bluestem photo by +Amy Coffman-Phillips 

"The Biomimicry Institute is partnering with the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and food and conservation experts to solicit nature-inspired solutions toward ending world hunger. From 2015-2017, our Global Biomimicry Design Challenge will mobilize thousands of students and professionals around the world to tackle the problem of food security. Our goal: show how modeling nature can provide viable solutions to reduce hunger, while creating conditions conducive to all life."

Learn more!

http://challenge.biomimicry.org/

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative/commitments/biomimicry-design-challenge