EVER SINCE the day a hawk perched on the infant Leonardo da Vinci's cradle, spurring him to study the flight of birds later in life, humans have been looking to nature for design solutions. Now, five and a half centuries later, design fairs are bursting with nature-inspired creations, ranging from the witty interpretation of form, to the borrowing of functional solutions found in nature.
Among the highlights at this year's Salone del Mobile, in Milan, in March, was French designer Matali Crassat's Foglie lamps, inspired by the form and growth of plants.
'What is so amazing about nature is the intrinsic force contained in every plant which blossoms in the spring,' she says. 'A vertical force which starts at one point and develops in space as it searches for light.' In the pendant version, the 'leaves' stretch downwards to break up the light rays, creating the visual sensation of a glimpse of a moon behind branches, while the Foglie floor lamp's metal stem creates a symbolic tree trunk and the branches carry light upwards. The light-diffusing leaves, made from opaline polycarbonate, come in ivory, white or oxide red.
Also present in Milan was the Dragonfly.MGX pendant light, inspired by the curved honeycomb structure of insect eyes and their three-dimensional array of light-emitting cells. By keeping the upper cells sealed, and gradually opening them towards the bottom, a maximum of light is allowed to pass through, with a minimum of glare. The Dragonfly.MGX was created by designers Gernot Oberfell and Jan Wertel of the London and Munich-based WertelOberfell, who share a passion for new technologies and experimentation.
Among the rising stars at the Design Indaba expo in Cape Town, South Africa, in February, was Snapp design team, Jonathan Fundudis and Renko Nieman. One item which stood out from their inaugural collection was the Lamellae fruit bowl, inspired by the underside of a mushroom. 'I was preparing mushrooms for a meal and was intrigued by the fascinating forms created by the gills,' Fundudis says. 'I had an idea that a profile of the gill radiated from a central point would create the essence of a bowl shape and would form a container without having a shell.
'Designers are using nature-inspired forms to create an awareness of our environment due to the global increase of our carbon footprint and the threat of our natural resources. With products reflecting nature, we feel an affinity towards our natural world, and may therefore preserve our existence.'
