Inspired by Nature
3 primary works
Book 0
Nature has always furnished stimulating ideas for the design of architecture, and the use of animal forms in contemporary architecture-whether to endow a project with symbolism, find a functional solution, or simply for aesthetic reasons-has become a commonplace practice. Inspired by Nature: Animals focuses on specific analogies, comparing and contrasting techniques and materials used in animal constructions with examples of human architecture. It gathers together the work of two dozen architects who have drawn on such structures as tortoise and snail shells, spiders' webs and birds' nests, beehives and beaver lodges.
Among the built examples from around the world are inventive projects such as Elephant Skin House (PPAG Architects, Austria), Kiss the Frog! (mmw architects, Norway), Moore Apiary (Marlon Blackwell, Cashiers, North Carolina), Concrete Pod (Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio, Nagoya, Japan), and more, beautifully illustrated in colorful photographs supplemented by plans. The visual analogies underline how architects can find elegant solutions and create new, sustainable, and efficient architectonic forms by the close and understanding observation of nature.
Among the built examples from around the world are inventive projects such as Elephant Skin House (PPAG Architects, Austria), Kiss the Frog! (mmw architects, Norway), Moore Apiary (Marlon Blackwell, Cashiers, North Carolina), Concrete Pod (Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio, Nagoya, Japan), and more, beautifully illustrated in colorful photographs supplemented by plans. The visual analogies underline how architects can find elegant solutions and create new, sustainable, and efficient architectonic forms by the close and understanding observation of nature.
Book 0
Inspired by Nature: Minerals gathers together the work of two dozen architects who have looked for solutions in the world of geology, from the models of organization offered by crystals to the inspiration of the earth's relief, mineral voids, volcanoes, and monoliths. Among the built examples are a movie complex (Coop Himmelb(l)au), museums (Daniel Libeskind and Tadao Ando), a theater (Antoine Predock), a residence (Will Bruder), a campus (Dominique Perrault), and more, beautifully illustrated in colorful photos supplemented by plans. The visual analogies underline how architects can find elegant solutions and create new, sustainable and efficient architectonic forms by the close and understanding observation of nature.
Book 0
Nature has always furnished stimulating ideas for the design of architecture. This collection of buildings, both vernacular and by important architects, from houses to hotels, schools, and commercial and industrial projects, reveals conscious and unconscious visual analogies with the plant world and explains why natural forms make good models for structure.