"The structural designs that occur in nature - in molecules, in crystals, in living cells - appear in this fully illustrated book as a source of inspiration and study of design of man-made structures" -- BOOK JACKET.

Applying Properties of Animals Skins to Inspire Architectural Envelopes Biology influences design projects in many ways; the related discipline is known as biomimetics or biomimicry. Using the animal kingdom as a source of inspiration, Ilaria Mazzoleni seeks to instill a shift in thinking about the application of biological principles to design and architecture. She focuses on the analysis of how organisms have adapted to different environments and translates the learned principles into the built environment. To illustrate the methodology, Mazzoleni draws inspiration from the diversity of animal coverings, referred to broadly as skin, and applies them to the design of building envelopes through a series of twelve case studies. Skin is a complex organ that performs a multitude of functions; namely, it serves as a link between the body and the environment. Similarly, building envelopes act as interfaces between their inhabitants and external elements. The resulting architectural designs illustrate an integrative methodology that allows architecture to follow nature. "Ilaria Mazzoleni, in collaboration with biologist Shauna Price, has developed a profound methodology for architectural and design incentives that anticipates and proposes novel ways to explore undiscovered biological inspirations for various audiences." —Yoseph Bar-Cohen

Design in engineering and science has often been inspired by nature. This has been more evident in recent years, after a period during which our civilization thought in terms of taming rather than working in harmony with nature. The consequences of that approach are still with us and have resulted in a world increasingly homogenized, lacking in biodiversity and with increased pollution. Mankind has been slow to learn and even slower to apply the lessons that nature offers, in spite of the urgency of our predicament. This book contains papers presented at the fourth International Conference on Comparing Design in Nature with Science and Engineering . The emphasis of this Volume is on engineering and architectural applications and on biomimetics, reflecting in some measure current interest in finding environmentally friendly solutions which also optimize the use of natural resources. The contributions have been arranged into the following topics: Biomimetics; Shape and Form in Engineering Nature; Nature and Architectural Design; Natural Materials and Surfaces; Complexity; and Education.

This book provides a critical examination of structure and form in design, covering a range of topics of great value to students and practitioners engaged in any of the specialist decorative arts and design disciplines. The complexities of two-dimensional phenomena are explained and illustrated in detail, while various three-dimensional forms are also discussed. In the context of the decorative arts and design, structure is the underlying framework, and form the resultant, visible, two- or three-dimensional outcome of the creative process. Whether hidden or visually detectable in the final design, structure invariably determines whether or not a design is successful in terms of both its aesthetics and its practical performance. Hann successfully identifies various geometric concepts, and presents and discusses a number of simple guidelines to assist the creative endeavours of both accomplished and student practitioners, teachers and researchers.

In Book Oneof this four-volume work, Alexander describes a scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life, and establishes this understanding of living structures as an intellectual basis for a new architecture. He identifies fifteen geometric properties which tend to accompany the presence of life in nature, and also in the buildings and cities we make. These properties are seen over and over in nature and in the cities and streets of the past, but they have almost disappeared in the impersonal developments and buildings of the last hundred years. This book shows that living structures depend on features which make a close connection with the human self, and that only living structure has the capacity to support human well-being.

This text explores the potential of structure, that is beams, columns, frames, struts and other structural members, to enrich architecture.

"Books and articles come and go, endlessly. But a few do stick, and this book is such a one. Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process broke fresh ground in the understanding of strategy at a time when thinking about strategy was still in its early days, and it has not been displaced since." —David J. Hickson, Emeritus Professor of International Management & Organization, University of Bradford School of Management Originally published in 1978, Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process became an instant classic, as it bridged the formerly separate fields of strategic management and organizational behavior. In this Stanford Business Classics reissue, noted strategy scholar Donald Hambrick provides a new introduction that describes the book's contribution to the field of organization studies. Miles and Snow also contribute new introductory material to update the book's central concepts and themes. Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process focuses on how organizations adapt to their environments. The book introduced a theoretical framework composed of a dynamic adaptive cycle and an empirically based strategy typology showing four different types of adaptation. This framework helped to define subsequent research by other scholars on important topics such as configurational analysis, organizational fit, strategic human resource management, and multi-firm network organizations.