Bioinspired Textiles: Bridging the Knowledge Gaps Between Biology, Materials Science, and Textile Design Practice

The influence of biology on textile design has expanded in recent years, often through a material-driven approach focused on creating new bio-based materials. In contrast, this paper explores how biology and materials science can be harnessed to offer a design-practice-led approach for introducing desired properties and behaviors in textile systems. The research builds on a review of materials science studies, identifying eight recurring Biological Structural Design Elements (BSDE) that demonstrate strong and tough biological materials made from abundant substances. These BSDEs, presented as a visual graphic, served as a boundary object, enabling researchers to translate lessons from materials science into creative textile design applications. The paper outlines the final framework by explaining each structure, including its biological example, the properties it demonstrates (as understood in materials science), and how these can be applied to textiles. Collaborating with a range of textile practitioners, the paper presents exemplars of each structure as proof of concept for the framework, inspiring other textile designers with diverse skills and expertise to explore the structures in new ways. A reflection on the framework’s development highlights challenges such as terminology and property mismatches, identifying relevant lessons, and translating scale. The paper concludes by reviewing the textile practitioners’ work and argues that the framework can provide textile designers with greater agency in their practice, empowering them to develop textile practices that contribute to more sustainable and circular outcomes.