exhibition - Open call
echinodesign
The intersection between design, art, and science
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La mostra
Curated by: Carla Langella, Valentina Perricone, Roberta Angari
Sponsored by: Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli,” Department of Architecture and Industrial Design (DADI), and Città della Scienza
In collaboration with: Lucia Gambardella and Antonia Minervini
With contributions from: Antonella Rosmino, Sara Coscione, and Ciro Esposito
EchinoDesign is an international exhibition that offers a novel opportunity to explore, through a transdisciplinary approach, the relationship between design, art, and science from the perspective of biomimicry. This discipline draws inspiration from principles, logics, morphologies, and structures observed in nature to design innovative technologies and artifacts.
The exhibition will take place both physically and virtually, showcasing design, artistic, and scientific works that reinterpret, in a biomimetic way, the biological characteristics of echinoids (sea urchins). These will be examined from various perspectives and through different levels of investigation, including morphological, generative, structural, material, dynamic, and compositional aspects.
From April 15 to July 31, a call for submissions is open to designers, artists, engineers, and scientists to propose ideas and concepts for artifacts inspired by echinoids.
Applicants can consult the Learning from Echinoids section to deepen their scientific understanding of echinoid biological traits and discover suggestions for possible biomimetic applications based on the field they wish to explore (furniture, biomedical, jewelry, electronic devices, interaction design, new materials, graphics, visual arts, music, architecture and construction, data and scientific visualization, digital applications, etc.).
The submitted proposals will be evaluated and selected by a multidisciplinary scientific committee comprising internationally renowned experts in design, engineering, and science.
The selection results will be published on September 15, 2021.
From that date, the selected projects must be developed and produced as artifacts for the exhibition and sent by November 15, 2021.
During the development phase of the concepts, it will be possible to request technical and scientific support from the curators at (echinodesign@gmail.com). The selected products for the exhibition must be independently created by the designers or in collaboration with the project’s partner companies.
The exhibition will open on February 24, 2022, at Città della Scienza in Naples and will also be available virtually through an online platform designed to be itinerant, with stops in Italy and abroad.
The exhibition will be accompanied by seminars and international workshops on the themes of biomimicry and sustainable innovation.
By integrating diverse perspectives and interpretations of the echinoids theme, the exhibition will offer the public a multidisciplinary and multisensory experience. This will allow even less experienced visitors to immerse themselves in the fascinating world of echinoids and to understand both their incredible environmental value and their potential as a source of inspiration for the development of new artifacts.
Echinodesign: the projects
EchinoDesign originates from two research projects:
Mechanical design of the echinoid endoskeleton and inspired industrial details for design engineering in the Industry 4.0 Era
An interdisciplinary research project developed as part of the PhD program in “Environment, Design, and Innovation” at the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” and the Hybrid Design Lab.
RICCIcliamo: the second life of the sea urchin
Two research lines focused on reusing sea urchin food waste within a circular economy perspective, carried out by three different Italian universities (UniMi, UniPd, UniGe).
Mechanical design of the echinoid endoskeleton and inspired industrial details for design engineering in the Industry 4.0 Era
Echinoids, commonly known as sea urchins, are benthic invertebrates that have inhabited the seas since the late Ordovician period, approximately 450 million years ago. Over the course of their evolution, they have undergone significant adaptive radiation, specializing into a variety of forms and lifestyles suited to diverse marine habitats. The evolutionary success of echinoids is undoubtedly due to the unique design of their endoskeletons, which are well-equipped to withstand the biotic and abiotic stresses of the aquatic environment.
These optimized structures, which minimize energy and material use in their formation, serve as ideal natural models for the technological transfer of intelligent functional solutions in engineering and various industrial design sectors.
It is within this context that EchinoDesign was conceived, based on an interdisciplinary research project titled “Mechanical Design of the Echinoid Endoskeleton and Inspired Industrial Details for Design Engineering in the Industry 4.0 Era.” This project was developed within the framework of the PhD program in Environment, Design, and Innovation at the Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” and the Hybrid Design Lab.
The research focused on studying the morphological and structural characteristics of echinoid skeletons to gain new biological insights and identify functional strategies for biomimetic transfer. As a result, echinoids have become a source of inspiration and a model for the development of various bio-inspired concepts.
To learn more, visit the Learning from Echinoids section.
The study was conducted by:
Valentina Perricone, Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”
under the mentorship of:
Carla Langella, Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”
Maria Daniela Candia Carnevali, Università statale di Milano
Mario De Stefano, Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”
Flavio Ferrazzano, Weiko s.r.l.
Tobias Grun, Università della Florida
Michal Kowalewski, Università della Florida
With the essential participation of:
Francesco Marmo e Luciano Rosati, Università
Federico II di Napoli
Gabriele Pontillo, Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”
Lucas Fabian Olivero, Università di Algarve e Università di Aberta
and the indispensable support of:
Paolo Russo, Università Federico II di Napoli
Sergio Bravi, Università Federico II di Napoli
Luigia Santella, Stazione Zoologica di Napoli
RICCIcliamo: la seconda vita del riccio di mare
Sea urchins, in addition to playing a crucial role in the marine ecosystem and inspiring, with their particular shape, innovative biomimetic solutions, represent in many countries – including Italy – a culinary delicacy. Eating them as a condiment for a pasta dish, or raw as an appetizer, is an experience that, although gratifying from a taste point of view, is decidedly unsustainable from an ecological point of view: in fact, only the gonads of the sea urchin are eaten, while the rest (from 70 to 90% of the total mass) is discarded.
Thanks to the work of a multidisciplinary research team, involving several universities ( UniMi , UniPd , UniGe ) and directed and coordinated by the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policies of UniMi, it is now possible to reuse these food wastes in an innovative way with a view to a circular economy : the applications range from regenerative medicine (with the creation of real skin substitutes obtained from the collagen that surrounds the sea urchin’s mouth) to breeding and aquaculture (through the production, starting from the sea urchin’s shell, of a flour rich in calcium and antioxidants to be used as an additive for the feed of laying hens, fish and sea urchins themselves).
To learn more visit the site: https://www.riccicliamo.it/