freeDOME smart mobile office-home. The bio-logic design adaptation to the dynamic evolution of living

Abstract

The paper explores the phenomena of social isolation due to the changing modern work and life style models and looks for possible design solutions by investigating the insect world and translating this into design principles, from the micro to the macro scale. It empirically investigates the 'anthropological leap' that Homo Sapiens, along with his habitat, is technically making, evolving to “Homo Technologicus” (Longo, 2001) and researches the natural environment for designing his new “technological habitus”. The aim is to discover basic biologic principles applicable in designing both innovative human-centered devices (myPod) and intelligent collective systems (the campUS) where individuals can interact with themselves and their environment, as “Australian Aboriginals” used to do. Finally the project empirically engages with the challenges of designing “freeDOME”: a mobile and autonomous load‐bearing shell structure inspired by insects, especially coleoptera, exploiting their structure, the bending properties and the spectacular structural colors of their wings.