Principal Architect & Biomimicry Professional, Christine Lintott Architects
The Garden of Secrets
A TEALEAVES DOCUMENTARY
A botanical garden isn’t just a garden filled with plants – it is a garden of ideas.
In this exploration of nature, TEALEAVES explores how botanical gardens and the “secrets” they house can inspire lasting impact on people, society and the environment. With this knowledge, it is our hope to generate awareness for and curb future decisions that may harmfully impact our planet and our well-being.
United by a Love for Nature
"Through millions of years of evolution, the structures and processes of organisms have resolved many of the engineering and environmental challenges facing the modern world–we just need to look, observe, and learn."
PATRICK LEWIS, DIRECTOR OF UBC BOTANICAL GARDEN
“We’re in a period right now where it’s the responsibility of each person who cares about passing on a beautiful, resilient, healthy planet, to get out on the streets and fight for it.”
DENIS HAYES, FOUNDER OF EARTH DAY
Roots of the Project
About the Collaboration:
TEALEAVES x UBC Botanical Garden
At TEALEAVES, we aim to inspire creativity and connections through the art of blending to create a positive impact in the world. With the help of your friends and experts at UBC Botanical Garden, we are learning more about plants beyond their edible, aromatic, and medicinal properties - delving deep into the realm of plant-inspired biomimicry and biophilic design.
We documented the journey of our interest in plants to share with you, with the belief that the best condiment to any cup of tea is wisdom to share and a great story to tell. It is our hope to generate awareness for and curb future decisions that may harmfully impact our environment, our planet, and our well-being.
2020 Fast Company World Changing
Ideas Awards Honoree
Honoring world changing creative projects that
help explain and publicize global problems and solutions.
Honoring companies or initiatives that help
inspire better and more equitable learning.
About TEALEAVES
Est. 1994, TEALEAVES is one of the very few tea blenders in the world, known for crafting the highest quality teas in small batches by hand. We keep only 1% of the tea leaves presented to us from the world's highest grade gardens to ensure that we stay your cup of tea from generation to generation, no matter where you're enjoying it.
About UBC Botanical Garden
UBC Botanical Garden is Canada’s oldest university botanic garden, established in 1916 under the directorship of John Davidson, British Columbia’s first provincial botanist.
The original mission of the garden was research into the native flora of British Columbia. Over the past 100 years, the mission of UBC Botanical Garden has broadened to include education, research, conservation, community outreach, and public display of temperate plants from around the world.
Professor Of Botany & Founder Of The Rieseberg Lab, UBC Biodiversity Research Centre
Screened At
Special Thanks to Our Partners
Ask Nature: Alexandra Ralevski
Biomimicry 3.8 & Singularity University: Leon Wang
Bullitt Foundation: Mary McNair
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: Matilda McQuaid
New York Botanical Garden: Barbara A. Ambrose
Tree of 40 Fruits: Sam Van Aken
UC Berkeley: Philip B. Stark
Warwick University: David Towers, Adrian Seymour, Martin Millson, Peter Meesum, Jim Smith, Ian Brown, Graham Canham, Charles Joyce, Amy Hamson, Rachel Grimes, James Hudson, Mark Hewson.
Design
Environment
Biology
Design
In a changing world, how we design and build matters. Lightweight superstructures, energy efficient buildings, regenerative surfaces - nature has a solution for that.
Constant surface stress in nature is beneficial for reducing use of materials and increasing durability. Discover how biomimetic architecture reflects this principle.
Dr. Wanda Lewis discusses how form finding can help architects and engineers find the optimal shape for their structure.
Biomimicry champion Michael Pawlyn discusses how he brought biomimicry into even the smallest aspect of his work and in the process, created an incredibly efficient structure.
Michael Pawlyn shares the story of designing The Eden Project, the world’s largest greenhouse, which, thanks to biomimicry, is also the most efficient.
Michael Pawlyn urges designers, architects and engineers to look to nature, so that they can find solutions, be problem solvers, and help us live in a more sustainable world.
One of the founders of Earth Day in North America, Denis Hayes shares what it took to get the event off the ground, and the epiphany that led him to a life dedicated to the environment.
Robert Lang is a physicist as well as a celebrated origami artist, theorist and author, here he explains step one in his approach to origami design – looking to nature.
Inventor of waterproof surfaces and Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Jas Pal Badyal and his students have used biomimicry to create amazing innovations that are changing the world.
Michael Pawlyn breaks the myth that it costs more to be environmentally conscious. In fact, it is often just the opposite.
Located in Seattle, The Bullitt Center is the world’s most sustainable commercial building. Denis Hayes, President of the Bullitt Foundation discusses what makes it run so efficiently.
Professor Jas Pal Badyal has been celebrated for his many innovations in bio inspired surfaces, success he attributes to his students.
Environment
Ethical nature-based design considers nature as a client, not just the inspiration.
Award-winning horticulturalist, writer and plantsman Dan Hinkley discusses the feeling of stumbling upon a rare plant that you never thought you would find.
Plantsman Dan Hinkley discusses a unique form of biomimicry, in which orchids impersonate insects, and the amazing oddities that exist in the plant world.
UBC Botanical Garden’s Douglas Justice discusses the importance of biodiversity to the health of our planet, and the ways that plastic is putting that diversity in danger.
Curator and Horticulturist at UBC Botanical Garden, Andy Hill has worked in the garden for many years and seen designers and artists come to the garden to make new discoveries.
Professor of Evolutionary Processes in Plants Loren Rieseberg discusses how losing biodiversity means more plant species locally, but less globally.
Canada Research Chair in Plant Evolutionary Genomics Loren Rieseberg discusses the current extinction crisis we are in and the devastating consequences as a result of losing plant species.
Dr. Robert Lang is a celebrated origami artist, theorist, author and NASA physicist, who finds that looking closely at nature around him often inspires his best work.
Walk with Christine Lintott as she demonstrates first-hand how one takes a nature bath, for reinvigoration and inspiration.
Architect, business leader, and environmentalist Christine Lintott discusses how looking to nature has led her to better business practices.
Partner at PFS Studio Architects, Kelty McKinnon has spent much of her career learning from nature and applying it to city planning, and urges other architects to do so as well.
Hear from experts including designers, artists, and engineers who have all looked to botanical gardens for inspiration beyond their edible, aromatic, and medicinal properties.
UBC Botanical Garden helps preserve biodiversity. In this insight, Curator and Horticulturist Andy Hill discusses how important that preservation is.
Biologist and Biomimicry expert Dimitri Smirnoff urges us to look to plants fo answers, before the plants are gone.
Kelty McKinnon, partner at PFS Studio Architects has worked on a number of large scale city planning projects in Vancouver and Toronto, and is always inspired by nature.
Biology
Biology, with out it biomimicry is just a concept. Fundamentally understanding the science behind the most intricate inner-workings of nature allows us to truly create in nature's image.
Douglas Justice discusses the interesting history of Wolfsbane during a walking tour of UBC Botanical Gardens.
In “The Martian” the biologist got to be the star. In this clip Plantsman, Alec Mackenzie discusses his take on the film and whether life on Mars is a viable option.
While you may already know about the bur and sunflower insights that are applied to technology, it makes them no less fascinating and valuable to share with others.
Richard Piacentini, CEO and President of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, discusses the unique history and important future of botanical gardens.
Biomimicry expert Dimitri Smirnoff discusses the process designers can use to implement solutions from nature, such as trees ability to adapt to wind when designing buildings.
Canada-Wide Science Fair Gold Medalist Grant Mansiere was given the opportunity to present his work to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the first ever Prime Minister’s Science fair.
Related Reading
More on biodiversity and biomimicry from The Garden of Secrets and beyond
