The Built World 6-week course

Mazin Bahho is a retired academic formerly affiliated with IDEAschool at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), New Zealand, as a senior lecturer of Design. He completed his PhD Degree in Architecture in 2018 from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

His research is grounded in design education, with particular emphasis on interdisciplinary pedagogy, practice-led inquiry, and community-engaged learning. Identity and sense of place are also paramount to his process, focusing on the significance of history and culture as a way of exploring patterns that can be expressed in the contemporary.

Following his retirement, he remains actively engaged in research and publication, continuing to contribute to scholarly discourse in design education and sustainability.

SESSION Abstract: The Rise of Modernism
Modernism is the first movement that is considered global. It is both a philosophical movement and an arts movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The modern movement is also a mode of thinking that has transformed society and ran across all the novelties in the arts and the other disciplines. Guided by form follows function, it was a revolutionary shift rejecting historical ornamentation for minimalism, functionality, and industrial materials like steel, glass, and concrete.

The presentation looks at key aspects that shaped Modernism and provides examples that explain the underlying concepts discussing these topics:

• Modernism: a philosophical movement and an arts movement.
• The beginning: Why, where, and how?
• The ideals of modernism.
• The Bauhaus.
• The Early Masters' examples of their celebrated works.

Debate about the relevancy and timeline of modernism continues, with some scholars arguing that it evolved into late modernism or high modernism. Postmodernism, meanwhile, rejects many of the principles of modernism.

SESSION Abstract: SESSION Abstract:

Design Inspired by Nature (Biomimicry) is a design approach that emulates the strategies and solutions found in nature to solve human problems. The idea behind this strategy is that nature has already solved many of the problems we face, and we can learn from it to create better solutions for us. It is not just about copying nature, but about understanding the underlying principles behind the methods and solutions found in nature.

The presentation looks at design inspirations by nature and provides examples that explain the underlying concepts. It discusses these topics:

• Analysing natural forms that have inspired design concepts.
• Design looking for biology.
• Biology influencing design
• A framework for understanding levels of natural inspirations:
  Organism level
  Behaviour level
  Ecosystem level

A biomimetic approach to design and architecture could become a vehicle for creating an environment that goes beyond simply sustaining current conditions to become a restorative practice where the human environment becomes a vital component in the integration with and regeneration of natural ecosystems.