Doing What Comes Naturally Students from Entwerfen and the
Institut für Tragkonstruktionenund Konstruktives Entwerfen
pooled their expertise to design and construct a dome based on a
study of the sand dollar. Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design,
1/1/2012 2:00:00 AM Human designs have been imitating nature for
centuries. However, the term bio-mimicry wasn't introduced until
the 1980's. That's just shortly before the birth of most of the
budding digital innovators and structural engineers at the
Institutfür Computer basiertes Entwerfen and the Institut für
Tragkonstruktionenund Konstruktives Entwerfen, programs at
Germany's Universität Stuttgart. Students from both pooled their
expertise to design and construct a dome based on a study of the
sand dollar. Its exo skeleton, director Jan Knippers explains,
"incorporates polygonal plates linked by calcite protrusions, or
finger joints." To connect 850 geometrically unique plywood
facets as a dome, 40 feet in diameter, required more than
100,000 finger joints. "There