Typology
A typology of applications
The work set out to solve one problem: how to give a vehicle more solar area without losing its compact form. In answering it, it found something larger.
The discovery
Not one product. A typology.
The same few insect mechanisms keep reappearing, in a bicycle, a station, a shelter, a satellite. The study of winged insects, and of how each relates to its environment, yields a structured set of mechanisms and purposes from which applications can be designed again and again.
How an application is made
From insect to application
An insect is studied in its environment; a mechanism is drawn from it; its purpose is named; and the pair is carried to a human setting that asks for the same purpose.
Observe the insect in its place
What pressures shape it: sun and heat, wind, rain, predators, flight, rest, dispersal? A ladybird’s wing cases answer abrasion and attack; a dragonfly’s posture answers heat.
Extract the mechanism
Reduce the form to how it works: a fold, a stack, a shell, a vein network, a tuned tip, a vortex held on the wing. Measure it. Learn the mechanism, not the shape.
Name the purpose
State what the mechanism achieves in a word or two: collect, protect, cool, shade, stow, tune, move air, disperse.
Find the human environment
Look for a place where people need the same purpose under similar pressures: a city street, a highway, a rail line, a mine, the outback, orbit.
Design the application
Combine mechanisms where one is not enough. Give the result two complete forms, closed and open, and make both beautiful.
Test and record
Check the biology, estimate the energy, prototype and measure. Then add the result to the typology, so each application builds on the last.
Read forwards
Mechanisms and the purposes they serve
Each row is a mechanism found in winged insects, traced from its purpose in the insect to its purposes in design.
| Mechanism | Insect | Purpose in the insect | Purposes in design |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fan pleat | Grasshopper, stick insect, locust | A large hindwing stored in a narrow strip along the body | Collect, stow, shade |
| Flat stack | Termite | Identical wings laid flat over the body, opened by one motion at the root, shed after flight | Stow, repeat, mass-produce |
| Tent | Cicada, lacewing | Veined wings roofed over the body, shedding rain | Protect, shed, collect |
| Fixed span | Dragonfly | Wings that never fold, with the most precise control of any insect | Collect reliably, fly, damp |
| Shell over fold | Rhinoceros beetle, ladybird | Hard wing cases that protect a large folded wing and guide it into its creases | Protect, enclose, deploy |
| Radial fan | Earwig | The densest known wing fold, locking open and closed without effort | Stow densely, lock without power |
| Venation | All winged insects | Veins as structure, plumbing and sensors at once | Carry load, wiring and coolant |
| Thermoregulation | Dragonfly, cicada | Turning toward or away from the sun; moving heat with the blood | Cool, shade, track |
| Tuned tip mass | Dragonfly pterostigma | A weight near the wing tip that stops flutter | Tune, damp, harvest vibration |
| Leading-edge vortex | Flies; seeds that copy them | A spiral of air held on the wing for high lift | Move air, harvest wind |
| Swarm | Termite nuptial flight | Thousands of individuals released at once, each deploying alone | Disperse, scale |
Read backwards
Start from a place and a need
The table can also be read from the other side. That is how a new application begins.
| Environment | Pressures | Purposes required | Mechanisms chosen |
|---|---|---|---|
| City street and depot | Height limits, crowds, midday idle time | Collect, stow, shade | Fan pleat, fixed span |
| Resort and leisure | Sun, short loops, image | Collect, shade, delight | Fan pleat, with colour |
| Highway and rail | Speed, tunnels, clearances | Protect, collect, move air | Shell over fold, tent |
| Farmland and towns | Land shared with grazing, winter heating, remote sites | Collect, heat and cool, stow for transport | Fan pleat, venation |
| Mine | Heat, dust, round-the-clock autonomy | Protect, cool, shade | Shell over fold |
| Outback and disaster zones | Remoteness, storms, no grid | Stow, deploy, collect day and night | Radial fan, shell, tuned reeds |
| Orbit | Launch volume, vacuum, heat | Stow densely, deploy reliably, radiate heat | Flat stack, radial fan, venation, swarm |
| The Moon and Mars | Dust, cold nights, weak sun | Protect, collect, close | Shell over fold, tent |
The typology is open. Other organisms enter where they teach a mechanism better than an insect does: the kingfisher, the trout, the humpback whale, the owl.