Assignment #13 – 3 TED Talks + Observation

-Assignment Intro-

We are asked to watch the assigned three TED talks and write reflections for every one of them while for the first one we need to list out 2-3 surrounding examples of “cradle to cradle” innovations and for the third one we also need to provide 2-3 real-life examples of designs that reminds us about elements from nature.

1 William McDonough: Cradle to cradle design

This talk reminds me of the severity of the environmental destruction human being has made as well as the efforts human being has put in. Actually, I live in one of the listed 8 cities for 15 years of my life.

That is my hometown and according to my in-person experience, I really feel that the “green” area has been expanding gradually although I did not have the fortune to the green-capped factory. I really feel the government is doing things with a goal regarding sustainability.

I really believe that we will discover more and more cradle to cradle materials so that people can take advantages of while maintaining sustainability. Even we cannot create that many eco circles that recycle themselves, we should protect the trees. As Dr. McDonough pointed out as a joke a thing that “create oxygen, stabilize carbon” and so on, even it is a joke, it is a cruel reality. People’s overuse of nature is really harming us and only ourselves.

2 Suzanne Lee: Grow your own clothes

This talk provides a really innovative idea to grow fabrics organically using bacteria. I was astonished right after watching this video. I cannot help thinking what if this fabric manufacturing technology is popularized, will the whole the fashion design industry be changed by this? No doubt that is legendary.

This innovation is definitely a cradle to cradle design since whenever we want to throw away our own clothes, we throw them away and they can be “digested” by the earth to provide nutrition to grow more bacteria thus clothes.

3. Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action

This one basically lists out a series of biomimicry in our daily life such as the bullet train, the wall in the hospital and so on. I was utterly astonished when I discovered that even the wall of hospitals is specially made for decreasing the infection. This reminds me of a book talking about unknown technics applied in industrial design nowadays. For example, when cars are driving in or out of the tunnel, there will always be some bars letting lights come through even in the undersea tunnel. Guess what? This is actually made for drivers’ pupil to expand or shrink to adapt to a differently illuminated environment.

Biomimicry is everywhere and we, human being, as one of the species of animal should take great advantages of it for a brighter future.

-Observation-

-Cradle to Cradle-