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ISSUE #43

DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED

MARISA MORBY​

We're having a heat wave here in the Pacific Northwest, so I've spent some time out on the river, happily gliding on my paddle board, excited to see what beautiful thing I'm going to discover around each curve and bend.

So what's on my mind this week is mystery and magic. There are so many natural mysteries that we can't answer today and may never be able to answer. And from the right angle, mystery can bend and refract into a little bit of magic. I've always found nature magical because it's at once complex and simple, beautiful and terrifying. It is captivating—and for me, that's what magic is all about. ​
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design

I've talked before about biophilic design and its importance in our built environment. Today I wanted to highlight one of its suggested design principles. Design principles exist across physical and digital design disciplines as guidelines designers can apply to create stronger designs.
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Biophilic design, incorporating nature into what we build, is an old concept that has only recently been named, so the design principles aren't standardized yet. However, Terrapin Bright Green is an architecture firm that's created principles for their own projects and is sharing them.

One principle I found particularly compelling was the Nature of the Space. The Nature of the Space "replicates enjoyable or exciting conditions found in nature." It focuses on the emotional qualities that nature can inspire in us.
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And this is where the mystery comes in. One component of the Nature of the Space is mystery. "The Mystery pattern is defined as the promise of more information achieved through partially obscured views or other sensory devices that entice the individual to travel deeper into the environment." It's the creation of pleasant anticipation, of curiosity. It's the need to discover what is around the next bend on this river, or what you'll find around the next corner of the hiking trail. It's seeing what's beyond that tree in a garden landscape, and is a well used tool in the landscape design kit.
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Mystery in this way is very pleasurable for us; it's the promise of something delightful and new. The promise, maybe, of a bit of magical delight.

nature

As science evolves we get to solve more and more mysteries. One mystery that I think about often, was the mystery of eels.

For millennia, how and where eels reproduced was unknown, causing ancient Egyptians, philosophers, and even psychologists to write about them. In a small way, their mystery made them tiny creatures of legend.

But thanks to tracking technology and dedicated scientists, it was recently discovered that all American and European eels spawn in one place; the Sargasso Sea, which is inside the Bermuda Triangle. The eels spawn, leave the Sargasso Sea to grow and mature, and then somehow manage to travel up to 6200 miles back to the Sargasso Sea.

Their life at sea while they mature is largely unknown, and scientists still aren't completely sure how they navigate back to the Sargasso Sea, although there is some preliminary evidence that they might use magnetic fields to help direct them.
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But for me the most exciting part about the migration discovery is that it was only confirmed in 2022. Until then, scientists unable to find concrete evidence about where the eels came from!

reimagine

​Medusae by Cristina Tarquini is a beautiful intersection where art, science, data visualization, and storytelling meet. This stunning presentation explores the mystery of the jellyfish boom. Why, in the midst of rising sea temperatures, are jellyfish of many species thriving? What do millions more jellyfish mean for our oceans? Set some time aside to really go through this project; it's beautiful and fascinating.

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