Immersion Workshop | Biomimicry Thinking for Design
March 5–10, 2016 | El Rancho Robles, Oracle, Arizona
The registration for this workshop is now closed.
Let the sun-soaked Arizona desert shed light on a new, biologically-inspired design lens during Biomimicry 3.8’s upcoming Biomimicry Thinking for Design Immersion Workshop. Whether you’re a designer, engineer, business leader, educator, or sustainability champion, we invite all innovators to learn with us as we discover how biomimicry can unlock answers to a wide range of challenges faced by industries in almost any sector. While exploring the deserts and mountains of southern Arizona from a home-base on the historic El Rancho Robles, our Biomimicry Thinking workshop will focus on unpackaging and applying the Biomimicry Thinking methodology through each of its four major processes: Scoping, Discovering, Creating, and Evaluating.
Participants will immerse themselves into Biomimicry Thinking, including practicing with interdisciplinary teams on design challenges inspired by the real-world questions. By reframing typical approaches to problem solving, participants will learn how to discover natural models that can inform new and innovative solutions.
Through the course of the workshop, our world renowned biomimicry instructors will teach participants to:
- Employ the Biomimicry Design Lens, a set of tools with a proven methodology for tapping into and applying nature’s most innovative design strategies
- Use creative problem solving skills to re-frame design challenges in a way that launches discoveries of nature’s genius and harnesses the power of asking: “How would nature..?”
- Think like a biologist and access the power of biological intelligence to discover and differentiate nature’s design lessons at the form, process, and system levels for application to a wide variety of challenges
- Practice ecosystem-like thinking by developing creative, biomimicry-based solutions that draw from interdisciplinary perspectives to simultaneously drive innovation and sustainability
- Learn to use inspirational biological insight to guide and inform the innovation design process using the biology to design path
Workshop Location
The workshop will be held at El Rancho Robles Guest Ranch, at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Oracle, Arizona. In 2012, new owners restored the historic dude ranch to its original 1930s glory. The ranch is located at 4,500 feet above sea level in the high Sonoran Desert. You will be surrounded by pines and oaks in addition to saguaros. The Sonoran is the only place in the world where the famous saguaro cactus grows in the wild. It is one of the largest and hottest deserts in North America, with an area of 120,000 square miles (311,000 square kilometers).
During the workshop we will explore the region with visits to Biosphere 2, which Time Life Books recently named one of the 50 must see “Wonders of the World” and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Workshop Leaders
Dayna Baumeister
Biomimicry 3.8 Co-Founder
Dr. Dayna Baumeister is a world-renowned biomimicry lecturer and consultant, Director of the Certified Biomimicry Professional Program and a Professor of Practice and Co-director of The Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University. With a background in biology, a devotion to applied natural history, and a passion for sharing the wonders of nature with others, Dayna has worked in the field of biomimicry with business partner Janine Benyus since 1998 as a business catalyst, educator, researcher, and design consultant. Among multiple endeavors, Dayna and Janine most recently founded Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise committed to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and has helped more than 100 companies, including Nike, General Mills, and Procter & Gamble, tap into biological intelligence for elegant and sustainable solutions.
Dayna was instrumental in designing Biomimicry 3.8’s professional training programs, which due to overwhelming success, were the catalyst of the partnership between Biomimicry 3.8 and ASU to form the world’s first Master’s of Science in Biomimicry.
As a workshop leader and instructor for this course, Dayna shares her visionary leadership in biomimicry drawing from 17+ years of experience bringing biological intelligence to a wide range of audiences.
Erin Rovalo
Biomimicry 3.8 Senior Principal, Designer
Drawing from an architectural design background, Erin Rovalo now weaves biomimicry into her design thinking expertise, which has allowed her to cultivate a distinctly innovative approach to finding sustainable solutions to challenges of all kinds. Trained as a Certified Biomimicry Professional, Erin’s goal is to deliver a holistic methodology for driving innovation, ecosystem regeneration, and conservation while bringing awareness to new ways of viewing and valuing the natural world.
As a Senior Principal at Biomimicry 3.8, Erin has broadened her scope beyond built environment work to include a wider range of design sectors and challenges, such as packaging design and organizational development. She also serves as a biomimicry and design instructor to professionals around the world. For the past 7 years, Erin has successfully managed biomimicry innovation initiatives for Natura, Estee Lauder, Lone Meadow, Interface, and Burt’s Bees, as well as supported the professional training of over 150 Biomimicry 3.8 certification program alumni.
Who Should Attend
This workshop is open to professional and university-level participants from all backgrounds and levels of experience with biomimicry. The agenda is designed for:
- Innovators, regardless of sector, who are interested in bringing nature’s genius to their project work and innovation strategies
- Sustainability champions who want to be inspired by the natural world as they work to solve humanity’s toughest sustainability challenges
- Educators who want to bring nature’s genius into the classroom
- Students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Biomimicry program with Arizona State University interested in Biomimicry Specialist Certification
Credit Toward Biomimicry Specialist Certification
Biomimicry 3.8 has restructured the Biomimicry Specialist Certification program to include self-paced, modular learning units. This Immersion Workshop counts as one of two required in-person units. Learn more about the units required for the Biomimicry Specialist Certification.
Discounts – Limited Availability!
All discounts have limited availability, are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and may not be combined.
- Early registration discount: The first five registrants will save $250. (none remaining)
- Student discount: Enrolled university students save $250. Must upload copy of current student ID upon registration. (none remaining)
- Biomimicry network member discount: Members of a local Biomimicry 3.8-associated biomimicry network save $250. Must upload brief, written endorsement from local network leader upon registration. (none remaining)
Regular registration has now closed.