All Eyes on Biomimicry

Autodesk is committed to providing software that helps our customers simplify sustainable design decisions in each industry we serve. To support our efforts, Autodesk has become the exclusive founding sponsor of AskNature.org—the world’s first biomimicry design portal and database, where designers and innovators can search for nature’s solutions to sustainable design challenges.

AskNature.org is a project of the Biomimicry Institute, founded by Janine Benyus, the renowned author of the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. AskNature.org is collaborating with the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History and E.O. Wilson’s Encyclopedia of Life as a source of data for the portal.

The portal is a free, public-domain online library filled with nature’s best ideas, organized by function, explained in nontechnical language and enhanced with illustrations to explain how things work. The portal helps architects, designers, and engineers access and understand sustainable design concepts so they can use them in their own products and projects.

Autodesk believes that biomimicry, as a design paradigm, can provide our customers with design intelligence to help them make smarter design decisions – whether they are designing a building, a train, a shoe or a city. Looking ahead, Autodesk’s goal is to make biomimetic information accessible to a wide range of users globally. Autodesk product teams are investigating technology intersections, including those with the Autodesk® Seek web service, which has already made select biomimetic products available to designers.

Visit AskNature.org to start utilizing this tool.

Learn more about Autodesk Seek.

To learn more about Autodesk’s commitment to sustainable design, please read Autodesk’s Sustainability Report.