How might Biomimicry help us understand the context of a problem in order for us to respond locally, not with one-size-fits-all solutions?

In this episode, I speak with Bronwen Main and Frank Burridge. Bronwen is a landscape architect and co-founder of Main Studio, where she focuses on sustainable, nature-inspired designs that transform urban spaces. Her work emphasizes ecological restoration, community well-being, and biodiversity, creating environments that encourage people’s communion with nature. Bronwen also contributes as a lecturer and mentor, sharing her expertise with emerging architects. Through her innovative projects and community engagement, she promotes environmentally responsible design practices that blend aesthetics with ecological integrity and sustainable urban living.

Frank is an architect and co-founder of Main Studio, a creative practice that blends architecture, art, and landscape design with ecological and community-focused principles. As a Teaching Associate at Monash University and a registered architect with the Architects Registration Board of Victoria, Frank is known for his innovative, sustainable projects. His work includes high-profile projects like Zac Efron’s planned “Futurecave” in New South Wales, embodying his commitment to creating functional, environmentally harmonious spaces.

Bronwen and Frank are the architects (along with Ibuku) who are designing Green School' Biomimicry for Regenerative Design Lab, a first of its kind space in a K-12 school, where learners of all ages come together to explore and apply biomimicry principles for regenerative design We discuss:

🥥 How biomimicry provides hope because we learn [from/as/with] Nature, which has already tested out infinite problems for over 3.8 billion years (at least!);

🥥 The design process behind Green School's Biomimicry for Regenerative Design Lab, in which students and educators participated, as did the Natural world and the contact of Bali, education, and the current state of the world;

🥥 How Biomimicry allows us to understand our place in Place, which is fundamental to opening up new possibilities for learning in schools and beyond.

Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.com

Learn more about Green School Bali: www.greenschool.org/bali

How might biomimicry be an ethical approach to a thriving planet rather than just another way to make cool products for money?

In this episode, I speak with Henry Dicks. Henry is an environmental philosopher and philosopher of technology. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and lectures in environmental philosophy and ethics at University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 and Shanghai University and in the philosophy of biomimicry at the Institut Supérieur de Design de Saint-Malo. We discuss:

🥥 Nature as measure, not in the qualitative sense, but rather as an ethical compass that guides us to respond in ways to life

🥥 Biomimicry as a move away from anthropocentrism through the reconsiderations of our relationships as Nature.

🥥 Biomimicry as a model for AI and the possibilities expanding toward more-than-human intelligences in AI.

This is the second of a 3-part series on Biomimicry, looking at the relational, ethical, and process of Biomimicry.

Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.com

How might we create participatory, community-based technologies inspired from Nature with the interests of life in mind?

In this episode, I speak with Daniel Kinzer. Daniel is the founder of Pacific Blue Studios, a network of youth-powered exploration, design and innovation studios leveraging biomimicry, traditional ecological knowledge and conservation technologies and focused on co-creating thriving, regenerative communities across Hawai'i and around our blue planet. He is an educator, designer, adventurer and ocean lover, and has spent over a decade living and learning across more than 70 countries and all 7 continents, including an expedition to Antarctica as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow with National Geographic. We discuss:

🥥 Being comfortable in the absence of language and tuning into how our human and other-than-human kin communicate;

🥥 Biomimicry and indigenous knowledge ask us to quiet our cleverness, having humility, and neither is for anybody to own, run away from, or have exclusive to anyone;

🥥 Eco-anxiety as “I don’t know who I am anymore,” as ego-anxiety.

This is the first of a 3-part series on Biomimicry, looking at the relational, ethical, and process of Biomimicry.

Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.com