University of Freiburg

During the summer study period, I was able to reach great knowledge from the source of plants from the Botanic Garden of Freiburg University. There, I could closely observe the structure, texture, material feature of various kind of plants. From the result of this observation, I analyzed and extracted the folding patterns of the studied plants. The folding patterns were simplified for the desired behavior and then the perimeter of the folding pattern such as angle, length and numbers were adjusted for experiment of variation.  From conversation and discussion with the Plant Biomechanics group led by Dr. Olga Speck, I gained deeper understanding of plants and wider vision of researches in this field.

I not only got this part of knowledge but also a new learning method. I learned that as a designer, I should pay closer attention to how nature designs, and extract inspiration from that for human design.   For my thesis, I am designing a light filtering system that inspired by the effect of dappled light passing through the tree leaves. The study has set a great foundation for my thesis study in MIT.