Peer Comments

Musa Noorsjamsi - http://musaides1031.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/bioinspired.html#comment-form

Oun Vimolpatranon - http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6561537982608082039&postID=6036589028779704071&isPopup=true

Ping Song - http://pings19.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/bamboo-spices-bottles.html#comment-form

Jan Gerardino - http://janraymondgerardino.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/studio-2a-project-1-bioinspired.html#comment-form

Max Glanville - http://maxglanvillez3333044.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/product-poster.html#comment-form

Studio 2 - Project One: BioInspired

BioInspired: Plant Storage (Herbs)

Design is one of the most crucial things that people can contribute in to society. Biomimetic/biomorphic designing is another stage where design is influenced by things in ecosystem. It gave me a glimpse in to the heart of ecosystem from the simplest to the complex stages that are happening around it. In this project, I have accomplished to design a Herb Storage mimicking some of the features and characteristics of vines. It is inspiring how designers can change a simple old form of storage into something quirky and exciting.

A vine is a plant with a growth habit of trailing and sometimes it refers to as stem runners. It has this delicate, exotic and exaggerated looks when it’s in the ground, walls or anything that they can climb into. Being inspired by this plant, this herb storage offers these characteristics. It is consists of three parts the base, stand and the individual planter that can be assembled or disassembled for storage purpose. In terms of the stand, it mimics how the vines grow in a way that user can add more branches to meet their preferred height of the storage. On the other hand, the individual planter mimics the leaves of the vines and the spiralling effect of it. User can also add more planters to plant more herbs to meet their needs. The shape of the planter is an exaggerated form of vine leaves and its twisting form. The dark olive green and anodised grey symbolised natures stability and delicateness.     

Adaptability into different domestic landscapes like apartments, condominiums and houses is not a problem. It can be easily place into small to high density living which lands under space saving storage category.

Made out of recycled plastics, this herb storage gives an eco-friendly product. In terms of the recycled plastic, heat compression is the process use to melt the collected plastics which is relatively easy to perform. Three moulds are made for injection moulding. The finish product is sprayed by a soy-based sealant so factors such as sun’s UV rays and water are not a big problem. Furthermore, using a recycled plastic as the primary material, the product then is durable and contained less harmful materials that will affect the environment and humans. Reusing recycled plastics can also be recycled again in the end of its product life span.

This Bio-inspired herb storage offers you awareness towards health, environment and safety through its materials; chemicals and processes used which comes from planning and designing of the product. The product being biomimetically and biomorphically inspired and designed, gives you an abstract, exotic and quirky appearance which is likable to many users. It is adaptive into different trends of living particularly the landscapes and the type of shelter. This product has the ability to add-more or take-less with a stackable individual planter and stands to meet the user’s needs. Using recycled plastics and required process gives a sense of practicality and awareness towards design practice being able to utilise these factors. The design of this product, being inspired of vines, has the nature’s sustainable design principle which can benefit the community and the environment. Marcel Wanders once said that ‘designing with nature has the potential to inspire; to contribute to the concept of a world changing opportunity but most importantly it is directed by the designer’s heart and mind’. 

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" is a documentary that showcase the worsening issue of climate change and the arguments that this issue put towards the society. It also shows the increasing production and how Carbon dioxide and greenhouse affect the environment. These informations are not just personal thoughts but presented by evidences like legal documents and statistics. For present designers, consciousness will be a great impact in this issue.


The issue about the glaciers is one of the evidence of how worst climate change it is now. This is evident through Kenya's Mt. Kilimanjaro's 11,000 year old glacier which is rapidly melting and retreating. Al Gore pointed out that if this keeps happening, glaciers retreating from both Antarctic and Greenland, 20 foot rise in sea level would happen in some parts of America and Asia. 


Al Gore's concern about our planet undoubtedly raised an immediate action from different parts of the world. World leaders as well as concern citizens should continue the act of humbleness towards our planet even from a simple use of recycling bins to promotion of paper bags instead of plastics.


This documentary I believe raises designer's thinking into another level. It challenges designers awareness about the materials that will be use in product design from packaging to finishing stages. Not everyone is fond of using sustainable or friendly materials. But as designers, we should also be aware that we are not just designing and making an impact towards the people but also towards the planet.  To make a difference, ethical thinking should be consider in designing things so awareness towards our future can be performed that can either harm or preserve our planet.               

Plant Storage Ideas/Concepts

The first idea is a plant storage inspired by a bird's claw. You can keep adding the storage in a line. The plant storage can be stored indoors were the claws like stand lays flat but grips its ground because of rubbery material. It can also be use for outdoors where you can cling the stand into branches of trees or even in fences and side windows.

The second idea is a plant storage inspired by a cactus. This storage is a free-form shape and can be put as one or in three parts. There will be pockets built in it in different sizes were you can plant the plants. The storage will be made out of brown sacks and can be filled up with soil or compost. When watering the plants , water will run down slowly to the next piece of sacks and to the last. The sack will keep the moisture inside and let the roots breath through it.