BIONIC BUYS

DISCOVER HOW LUXURY BRANDS ARE USING BIOMIMICRY TO SYNCHRONISE NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY INTO THEIR DESIGNS FOR THE FUTURE

words > CHRIS BEANLAND

We humans may live in a technologically advanced world, yet our biophilia is writ large. We fill our homes with plants and pets, and long for escapist weekends in the mountains.

Mercedes-Benz recently stated that “the ultimate luxury is the fusion of human and nature with the help of technology,” when the brand introduced its Vision AVTR concept car in 2021. It’s a vehicle that seeks harmony between man and machine at such high levels that there are no buttons, just menus projected onto the hand and body, and a central console that recognises your touch and breathing. The stark design of the futuristic vehicle, meanwhile, takes its inspiration squarely from organic forms like leaves and flowers.

Airbus is using ‘biomimicry’ to evolve its aircraft, studying owls to work out how they fly so silently before incorporating these lessons to its aircraft design, such as applying velvety coatings to the undercarriage of planes in order to reduce noise pollution. Their designs follow in the footsteps of engineer and birdwatcher Eiji Nakatsu, whose bright idea for the Shinkansen bullet train’s ‘tunnel boom’ problem was inspired by the kingfisher and its heavy straight bill. The train’s remodelled elongated nose not only eliminated its popping sound but unexpectedly made it between 10–15 per cent more efficient.

Travelling by plane, train or car, the beauty of the world becomes unmistakable – yet so does its fragility. Increasingly, tech-focused brands, such as start-up clothing company Vollebak, are concerning themselves with protecting the environment as well as learning from it.

“Nature is the best designer because it’s been doing it for 4.5 billion years. By comparison, the longest human life expectancy is just over 100 years. And given my brother and I are 42 years old, we’re unlikely to start out-designing it any time soon,” co-founder Steve Tidball says. Along with his brother Nick, the pair are on a mission to put organic technology on to every body. “We look at what we can learn, borrow, and mimic in nature, and bring that into our clothing,” says Tidball.

Vollebak’s most storied idea is the ‘living’ black algae T-shirt. Taking a one-and-a-half billion-year-old organism and building it into a T-shirt that stores carbon dioxide by using cutting-edge biotech, Vollebak breaks the mould where others dye their shirts with petroleumbased products. The brand has also developed a dark jacket inspired by the Blue Morpho butterfly and a wearable deep sleep cocoon designed for

astronauts which “mimics the adaptable and protective exoskeleton of a woodlouse which can use its own body as a protective barrier between itself and the outside world”.

As conscious individuals and companies are thinking about their carbon footprint and how to reduce it. Steve Tidball is, too. “We have a massive impact on nature in almost every part of the world,” he says. “So we need to get back to a point where our clothes are more compatible with the planet.”

Biomimicry may not be a novel idea, but advances in technology are helping innovators analyse nature in greater depth and create even more optimal products that mimic its magic. Take University of Oxford spinout Spintex Engineering, which recently cracked the code of one of the strongest biological materials in the world. The company’s research into the spider’s extraordinary way of spinning silk, and recreation of the process in the lab at scale – one that is a thousand times more energyefficient than producing plastic fibre – won the Biomimicry Institute’s Ray of Hope Prize in 2021.

As we become more aware of the fragility of nature, it’s clear that future tech and luxury products will have to reduce dependence on natural resources and be more sustainable. So why not start at the source – nature itself.

With biomimicry already being incorporated into industries from motoring to fashion, there’s no doubt that even in our high-tech society, much of what we see in the future will increasingly be influenced by the things which have lived on Earth for thousands of years.

We have a massive impact on nature in almost every part of the world. We need to get back to a point where our clothes are more compatible with the planet

Previous page The Blue Morpho jacket by Vollebak, photographed in the dark

Opposite page, from top The Blue Morpho butterfly; the Mercedes Vision AVTR interior hand sensor and exterior view This page, from top Vollebak’s plant and algae T-shirt; Algae produced in a bioreactor to make the T-shirt’s design; Algae is dried to produce a powder that is mixed with a binder