1st Edition

The Evolution of Designs Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts

By Philip Steadman Copyright 2008
320 Pages
by Routledge

320 Pages
by Routledge

320 Pages
by Routledge

This book tells the history of the many analogies that have been made between the evolution of organisms and the human production of artefacts, especially buildings. It examines the effects of these analogies on architectural and design theory and considers how recent biological thinking has relevance for design. Architects and designers have looked to biology for inspiration since the... Read more

Introduction.  The Organic Analogy.  The Classificatory Analogy: Building Types and Natural Species.  The Anatomical Analogy: Engineering Structure and the Animal Skeleton.  The Darwinian Analogy: Trial and Error in the Evolution of Organisms and Artefacts.  The Evolution of Decoration.  Tools as Organs or as Extensions of the Physical Body.  How to Speed up Craft Evolution.  Design as Process of Growth.  Biotechnics: Plants and Animals as Inventors.  Hierarchical Strcuture and the Adaptive Process.  The Consequences of the Biological Fallacy: Functional Determinism.  What Remains of the Analogy?  Afterword

Biography

Philip Steadman is Professor of Urban and Built Form Studies at The Bartlett School (Faculty of the Built Environment), University College London, UK