The often strained relationship between humans and nature is no more evident anywhere else than in large cities. Trees and fields have been replaced with skyscrapers and roads, and often the little greenery that does exist is confined to highway medians or parks flanked by concrete jungles.
As the world population climbs steadily towards eight billion, our partnership with nature will become increasingly more strained – and more important. Strides have been made in recent years to better incorporate nature into urban life – the New York City High Line or vertical forest skyscrapers, for example.
This intermeshing of nature and technology/design is what excites Yarden Mor and inspired Symbio.
A graduate of a special joint program of computer science at the Hebrew University and industrial design at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, Symbio is her graduation project.
Her goal is to encourage symbiosis between humans and nature through technology. Symbio is a method to connect to existing natural foundations – like trees and rocks – and enable sustainable living preservation while maintaining the comfort we are accustomed to in modern life.
Yarden demonstrated the idea using a fallen portion of tree. Using 3D scanning to create a CAD model of the branch, she can create a design that fits perfectly to its shape. Parametric design simulates forces and optimizes the model’s weight and strength, and the complex digital outcome is birthed into the physical world thanks to 3D printing. Autodesk Tel-Aviv helped Yarden print her prototype on their Gigabot.
In the process of creating her prototype, Yarden researched technologies and materials, development of a system, and created prototypes of applications in urban design. This project is a proof of concept for larger-scale designs involving the same technology.
See more of Yarden’s work on her Instagram @yarden.mor.
Morgan Hamel
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