The Polynesian Institute of Biomimicry is an association (law 1901) recognised as a training organisation. It is also an international network of more than 150 active members, with complementary and varied professional expertise, based on the different professions involved in the biomimetic approach: researchers, biologists, designers, engineers, architects....
It also benefits from the support of numerous partners, laboratories, research centres, universities and service providers, thus ensuring continuity in the implementation of the various projects and missions for the development of biomimicry in the Polynesian context.
The Institute focuses on 4 areas of activity:
Expedition, Ecotourism and Participatory Sciences. In partnership with Nani-travels, the Polynesian Institute of Biomimicry proposes a 5-day immersion in Polynesian nature and culture. It proposes to explore the Polynesian land and sea nature while discovering the inspiring and innovative power of Biomimicry. Training in the methods and tools of biomimicry is offered for the regeneration of coral ecosystems.
Project management and assistance: The institute is committed to supporting companies that call on them to co-construct a Biomimetic project.
The In-depth Training is a 1 to 3 day course that introduces participants to the concepts of bioinspired design. Throughout the course, fun workshops, explorations of Polynesian ecosystems and practical design exercises are offered to participants.
Biomimicry Initiations: The proposed experiments are there to create wonder and allow participants to better understand the intelligence of nature of which each one is a part. It is not enough to dive into the ocean to discover postcard-perfect landscapes, we must also be inspired by nature, live with it and take it into account in all our projects.
This is how the Polynesian Institute of Biomimicry fights, mainly, against the pollution of the oceans, because the cleaning of waste is not enough. Companies must innovate and create differently. Everyone can contribute to building a new economy based on Nature, innovative and regenerative of our beautiful planet...
François Briant's speech at the Biomim'expo digital week 2020
Focus on a project presented during the Biomim'week 2020 on Friday 11 December morning:
The Institut des Sciences du Mouvement Etienne-Jules Marey is a Joint Research Unit (UMR 7287), associating Aix-Marseille University and the CNRS through the Institute of Biological Sciences (INSB), the main institute, and three secondary institutes: the Institute of Engineering and Systems Sciences (INSIS); the Institute of Computer Sciences and their Interactions (INS2I) and the Institute of Human and Social Sciences (INSHS).
The institute is located on several sites of Aix-Marseille University, the Luminy campus, the Sainte-Marguerite Hospital, the Timone Hospital, and the IUT site of Aix-en-Provence
RESEARCH TOPICS
The Institute's research themes focus on the mechanical, physiological, neurological, psychological and sociological determinants of the motor skills of living beings, particularly humans.
The Institute's project is to develop interdisciplinarity for the study of Movement, in order to work at the frontiers of disciplinary fields.
During Biomim'expo 2021, Circulab invites you to participate in the Business Resilience Game.
This fun game helps managers and organisations to understand that economic performance should not be the only guide for the company. It is all a question of balance by integrating extra-economic parameters and applying the key principles of organisational resilience, which is what this new game effectively helps them to understand.
Brieuc graduated from a French business school and is specialized in the design of circular business models. He is a consultant and has authored several books including Activating the Circular Economy (2015). Brieuc's focus is on helping facilitate the integration of the circular economy in companies and their products and services. He has worked with companies such as IKEA, Interface UK, L'Oréal and IDEO.
JUSTINE LAURENT
After completing a Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and working on social and circular economy projects in the construction sector, Justine is now in charge of the development and coordination of Circulab and Circulab Network. She presents at schools and universities on topics such as creativity, innovation and the circular economy. She is also a trainer and facilitator for independent consultants and manufacturers.
Bocage urbain is a modular landscape design that proposes an alternative management of rainwater by creating a synergy between water and vegetation in the heart of the public space.
RAIN, A CHALLENGE FOR OUR TERRITORIES
While climate change is generating increases in rainfall in our temperate regions, the increasing urbanisation of our cities is reducing their natural infiltration capacities. 72.5% of French municipalities have already been confronted with at least one runoff flood. Faced with this situation, elected officials must now implement solutions to remedy flooding.
HOW TO REDUCE WATER CONGESTION IN CITIES?
The bocage landscape is a very efficient hydraulic system in the countryside. Adapting it to the urban environment is an opportunity to manage runoff water on a large scale while developing the territory in an aesthetic and ecological way.
Big Bang Project is the studio of designer Guillian Graves. It specialises in Research and Innovation through Design.
Its approach is transdisciplinary, at the interface of design and science. With its partners, large groups and research laboratories, the studio's team of designers and biologists conceive and prototype innovations in response to the major challenges of tomorrow. They are embodied in new processes, materials, products, services, methods, educational programmes and research programmes.
Through the Big Bang Project, Guillian Graves is also a teacher-researcher and head of the Master of Science Nature-Inspired Design at ENSCI-Les Ateliers, a teacher at Sciences Po Paris and a lecturer.
Interface is the world's leading designer and manufacturer of eco-friendly carpet tiles. Its products combine beauty, innovation and environmental qualities, allowing each company to express its own vision of design. Interface was one of the first companies to make a public commitment to sustainability, pledging in the 1990s to eliminate all negative environmental impacts by 2020.
Known as 'Mission Zero', this strong commitment, shared by all at all levels, enables the company to continually push the boundaries to achieve its goal. Interface is now only halfway to Mission Zero and the company is widely recognised for all its progress. The company's approach to Design and Innovation has earned it numerous awards and accolades such as the Athenaeum Good Design for its Fotosfera and Urban Retreat collections, the 2014 Hermès Innovation Award, in the 'Improving the relationship between man and nature' category for its Net-Works™ programme (the world's first inclusive and collaborative business model), also awarded at the European Business Awards for the Environment in the 'Business Cooperation' category last December.
Presentation by Geanne Van Arket and Eric Rampelberg at Biomim'expo 2018:
Explaining Interface's interest in biomimicry and Biomim'expo:
We believe that origami-inspired folding techniques are capable of revolutionising the way we approach and solve engineering challenges
PliFalTec is a young French company that uses the origami processes used in the nature to design and offer products innovative for the entire industrial world
Its employees constitute a international network of experts driven by the values of creativity, inventiveness, quality and eco-design
At the junction between theart and theengineeringPliFalTec imagines solutions in the image of the most beautiful technical and architectural achievements
Its products play with the fold in all its dimensionshigh-tech, aesthetic, ecological, timeless
Know-How and Expertise
Thanks to the diversity of its skills and its connections in the world of research and industry, PliFalTec can intervene and mobilise its experts in all sectors of activity where folding applications appear as relevant solutions: packaging, mobile architectures, mechanical engineering, medical devices, robotics, microsystems, etc.
Its experts are familiar with all origami techniques (classic, rigid, dynamic, 3D, modular, tessellations with a unique skill around crumpling), know how to select and work with various materials (paper, cardboard, fabrics, plastics, metals) and bring together a variety of skills, notably in engineering, design, architecture and industrialisation, thus covering a large number of sectors of activity.
PliFalTec uses standard professional tools to design and manufacture its products, but also develops its own design and production tools specific to bending techniques.
By mobilising its international network of experts and the complementarity of its skills, PliFalTec can provide its know-how at all stages of a project: Idea, Conception, Design, Manufacturing, Industrialisation:
Concerned about human mobility, EXONEO aims to improve the response to disability in developing countries through a variety of anatomical* solutions.
To do this, our team of biomechanical engineers is inspired by human anatomy to recreate solutions that relieve a deficient joint or replace a missing limb. The analysis of human movement allows us to design products that function as closely as possible to a natural limb.
Exoneo has already designed two initial products based on biomimicry: a polyarticulated foot prosthesis and an energy-returning knee orthosis.
* Derived from biomimicry and applied to anatomy, anatomimicry is a technique based on the study of the different structures of a living being in order to reproduce them in mechanics.
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