A taxidermied flying squirrel posed with its arms stretched out as if in flight.

Naturespace

Are you looking for a novel solution to a sustainability problem?

Welcome to Naturespace, a collaboration between the Library and Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University. Naturespace is an active learning library that facilitates hands-on explorations of nature. It’s a place where inspiration from nature is transformed into sustainable innovation.

Today's hours

 
Several animal skulls on display in a case.

Why look to nature?

It’s an encyclopedia of time-tested blueprints for solving our most pressing challenges. “After 3.8 billion years of evolution,” writes biomimicry thought leader Janine Benyus, “nature has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with: energy, food production, benign chemistry, transportation, collaboration, and more…. Mimicking these earth-savvy designs can help humans leapfrog to technologies that sip energy, shave material use, reject toxins, and work as a system to create conditions conducive to life.”

Naturespace resources

Naturespace is located in the Hayden Library on ASU’s Tempe campus. This hands-on learning library offers visitors a wide variety of tools for observing nature up close. Discover innovative solutions to sustainability challenges in a wide variety of disciplines from design and business to engineering and fashion.

  • Hundreds of natural history artifacts ranging from feathers, shells and skeletons to insects, dried plants and seeds.
  • An array of tools for visualizing natural phenomena, including microscopes, 3-D scanners, binoculars, field kits and magnifying lenses.
  • A collection of books that are useful in the study of biomimicry including volumes on such topics as biomechanics, natural history and up-close photography of objects drawn from nature.
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