BioBrainstorming is a biomimicry ideation method: define what a design needs to do, ask how living systems perform that function, then gather and document biological strategies worth investigating. It is a way to build a wide pool of ideas—not evidence that a natural mechanism will work as a finished design.
What BioBrainstorming does
BioBrainstorming helps a team find multiple organisms or natural systems that perform a function relevant to a design challenge. Instead of beginning with a desired shape or product, the method begins with a function and looks for strategies in nature that might offer useful analogies.
Sherry Ritter described the method in Make: on December 10, 2014. She proposed generating 30 to 70 potential models as a practical target. That is her guidance, not a tested threshold, a guarantee, or a count of strategies that will prove useful.
How to run a BioBrainstorm
1. Define the function, not the form
Write down what the design needs to accomplish. For example, focus on a function such as protecting, capturing, attracting, or maintaining diversity rather than specifying a particular device or shape. Ritter connects this function-first framing to searching for biological strategies by what they do.
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2. Turn the need into a “How does nature…?” question
Make the function an open question. Ritter’s examples include “How does nature protect from insects?” and “How does nature capture organisms?” A clear question gives the search a useful direction without prematurely limiting it to one organism or mechanism.
3. Add indirect questions
Ask related questions that may uncover a strategy not obvious from the initial design need. For a pest-related challenge, Ritter also suggests questions such as “How does nature attract insects?” and “How does nature maintain diversity?” Her literal prompts also include “How does nature use feedback loops?” These are search prompts, not claims that any named biological process is a proven design solution.
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4. Look in multiple places
Ritter recommends combining information searches with observation and conversation. She suggests AskNature, walks outdoors, botanical gardens, conversations with an entomologist, nature videos, and image searches using the function as a query. Different routes can surface different candidates; the sources do not establish that one route is more effective than another.
In discussing a fictional crop-pest control challenge, Ritter mentions image-search examples such as spider webs, insect-eating plants, antlion sand traps, predators, pheromone traps, glow worms, and plants that attract insects. The challenge and client were not disclosed, and those examples are inspirations to investigate—not documented interventions or demonstrated crop-control solutions.
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5. Record each candidate as a strategy
Do not stop at a list of organism names. The academic description of BioBrainstorming recommends documenting the organism or natural system, the strategy it uses to perform the function, the mechanism behind that strategy, and an abstracted design principle. This turns an interesting observation into a candidate that can be checked and compared.
A worksheet can help track organisms and mechanisms found in primary research. In a 2022 Design with Nature course at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, student teams were asked to add six unique organisms to their worksheet within a week. That was a course activity, not a universal requirement for the method.
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How to narrow the brainstorm
A broad candidate list is useful for discovery, but each candidate requires further research before it can inform a design. For every entry, separate what you observed from what you infer: identify the biological function, describe the strategy and mechanism, then state the design principle in abstract terms. Only then can a team assess whether the principle fits its constraints and merits further investigation.
- Keep candidates function-specific: explain how the organism or system performs the function in question.
- Distinguish mechanism from analogy: record what the biological system does and the principle a designer might investigate; do not treat the analogy as proof of feasibility.
- Use prompts and search routes together: direct questions, indirect questions, desk research, observation, and expert conversations are complementary approaches.
- Narrow by evidence and relevance: a large list is a starting point, not a measure of success. The available sources do not quantify which candidates or discovery method will produce the best design outcomes.
What the evidence says about the method
A 2022 article in Biomimetics describes BioBrainstorming as an activity for registering multiple organisms or natural systems that share a successful function. In its report on the Design with Nature course at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, 25 students completed a survey after biomimicry methods had been taught. Students generally found translating biological strategies into design difficult but rewarding. This classroom finding describes that cohort; it does not establish that BioBrainstorming alone improves design outcomes or that the result applies to all users.
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The method is best understood as structured idea generation followed by research. A biological analogue may suggest a promising question, but whether its strategy can be adapted to a particular design remains something to investigate.
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