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Menchu Naturesunifyingpatterns

1) The document describes an innovation called "Anastatica" that was designed using principles of biomimicry to address the problem of food deserts. 2) "Anastatica" is inspired by the Jericho rose plant and mimics its ability to open and close in response to moisture levels to indicate when plants inside need watering. Its structure also uses "thatching" like ants use in their nests to regulate temperature and humidity. 3) The design is responsive to its local environment by allowing people in food deserts to grow their own food at home using locally available resources, thus addressing the ninth of nature's unifying patterns of being locally attuned.

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107 views3 pages

Menchu Naturesunifyingpatterns

1) The document describes an innovation called "Anastatica" that was designed using principles of biomimicry to address the problem of food deserts. 2) "Anastatica" is inspired by the Jericho rose plant and mimics its ability to open and close in response to moisture levels to indicate when plants inside need watering. Its structure also uses "thatching" like ants use in their nests to regulate temperature and humidity. 3) The design is responsive to its local environment by allowing people in food deserts to grow their own food at home using locally available resources, thus addressing the ninth of nature's unifying patterns of being locally attuned.

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Natures Unifying Patterns:

Anastatica
Menchu Sanchez Fernandez
Natures unifying patterns is a list of lessons we have learned from observing
natures world. From these lessons we can learn more about how nature
thrives so that we can apply these into our own designs. Taking these lessons
into consideration, we are one step closer to mastering biomimicry.
Biomimicry is the practice of taking inspiration from biological processes and
entities and using them in your own designs. Considering natures unifying
patterns when practicing biomimicry allows our designs to cohere with the
already existing structures on Earth. With biomimicry, we are staying true to
natures designs and ensuring that our own creations fit into the life that
existed before we were here. The goal is to coexist with nature, and
mimic
the fundamental lessons we can learn from it.
In our biomimicry design, we considered natures unifying patterns to ensure
our design was coherent with these ideas. Natures ten unifying patterns are:
1. Nature uses only the energy it needs and relies on freely available energy.
2. Nature recycles all materials.
3. Nature is resilient to disturbances.
4. Nature optimizes rather than maximizes.
5. Nature rewards cooperation.
6. Nature runs on information.
7. Nature uses chemistry and materials that are safe for living beings.
8. Nature builds using abundant resources, incorporating rare resources only
sparingly.
9. Nature is locally attuned and responsive.
10. Nature uses shape to determine functionality.
We focused on number 3, 9, and 10 in our design because we found that
these three patterns were the ones that our issue (food deserts) needs the
most improvement on. By creating an innovation that is resilient to
disturbances, is attuned to the local environment, and takes advantage of its
shape to support its function, our solution will mimic the things we have
learned from nature to guarantee its success.
Our innovation, Anastatica, uses its shape to determine its function. We
were inspired by the Anastatica plants, also called Jericho Rose or
resurrection plant. Resurrection plants, are any poikilohydric plant that have
the capacity to survive extreme dehydration to low cell or tissue water
content and recover from it without physiological damage. 1 The dead

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poikilohydry
http://toolbox.biomimicry.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/09/BGDC_webinar_Patterns_May2015.pdf
1

branches of the Anastatica disperse seeds by alternating swelling and


shrinkage of cells by a hygrochastic (relating to the opening of a fruit or
flower caused by water/moisture) movement. In this way, our design
mimics
these hygrochastic movements by opening and closing when it needs
water. The structure of our innovation is similar to that of the Jericho Rose. It
has branches/petals that close and open which are an indication to the
person using Anastatica if the plants inside need water. When the
Anastatica is closed, the water is being trapped inside and is hydrating the
plants. The plants growing inside of the Anastatica need to stay moist in
order to grow. The petal/branch-like structure of Anastatica allows the
moisture to stay inside of the device. When the petals/branches of
Anastatica open, the owner now knows it is time to water the plants. This is
how the Jericho-like structure of our innovation supports its function.
By using this structure, our innovation is also able to become resilient against
disturbances. We knew that Anastatica needed to be able to be resilient
against temperature changes, meeting the necessary amount of moisture,
and water availability. We mimicked South American grass-cutting ants and
the technique they use to build their nests called thatching. This structure
allows the ants to provide ideal conditions for the fungus and brood they
cultivate to grow. Thatching makes this possible by effectively regulating the
temperature and humidity inside of the nest. Our innovations structure has
the same thatching technique all around its petals. Using this technique will
limit the amount of heat that flows through the structure and prevent it from
overheating. The thatching material that the ants use reacts less quickly to
changes in temperature compared to materials such as soil and the outside
environment. This continues to help enough insulation to ventilate through
the structure. We chose to mimic the ants because we needed our innovation
to be able to be resilient to any disturbances it may face.

Anastatica is also inspired by the ninth unifying pattern. This unifying


pattern teaches us about how nature is locally attuned and responsive to its
environment. The lesson we can learn from this pattern is to observe and
identify local conditions to respond appropriately. In nature, organisms and
ecosystems in a specific location increase their chances of survival by
practicing this ninth pattern. In our project, we identified the issue of food
deserts in urban communities. Food deserts take up 7.4% of the US urban
areas in which there is little-to-no access to affordable or good-quality fresh
food. In food deserts, fast food establishments have dominate the fresh food
market and people are 2.5 times more exposed to fast-food restaurants as
those living in the wealthiest areas. In our scoping process we researched
these communities to identify a specific problem that was tangible for us to
http://toolbox.biomimicry.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/01/Natures_Patterns.pdf
http://toolbox.biomimicry.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/04/NUPsExamplesPDF.pdf

take on. This is when we realized we needed to bring resources/fresh food


more locally to the people living in these areas. Our innovation, Anastatica,
allows people to use the resources they have locally to grow their own food
at home. With Anastatica people can use our innovation to buy a few
packets of seeds and simply care for them and watch them grow.
Anastatiucas use of these three unifying patterns allows this process to be
effective and easy. This allows people to take advantage of their local
environment to improve their condition (living in a food desert). By doing this,
Anastatica practices the ninth unifying pattern to ensure it is being
responsive to the environment in these areas. By becoming knowledgeable of
the conditions of a location, responding to these conditions becomes more
effortless.
Our goal for Anastatica is to improve the people living in food deserts
access to fresh nutritious foods. Anastatica is able to make this possible by
bringing the resources to peoples homes and allowing them to control their
food. This will improve these peoples eating habits by encouraging them to
eat the fresh food they have at home instead of reaching for the local fast
food establishment. This will promote healthier lifestyles in these areas and
give them healthier options to eat that they can easily access. Anastatica
will also reduce healthcare costs in these areas because people will not suffer
from diabetes and other diseases due to consuming great amounts of
unhealthy food. Overall, Anastatica will reduce the amount of people being
impacted by food deserts. Thanks to the ten unifying patterns, nature has
taught and inspired us to improve our designs in ways that blend in with the
natural systems already established on Earth.

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