http://bactra.org/notebooks Cosma's Notebooks en http://bactra.org/notebooks/1994/10/03#biological-design <P>That is, design based on that of living organisms. (People called this "bionics" in the '60s, but interested faded, and besides, there was that awful TV show; "biomimetics" is now used by some people.) Primarily I'm intrested in this as it applies to <a href="arch-design.html">architecture and design</a> in the conventional sense; but of course there are also things like <a href="bio-computers.html">bio-computers</a>. <P>See also: <a href="evol-design.html">Evolutionary Design</a> <ul>Recommended: <li>D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, <cite>On Growth and Form</cite> </ul> <ul>Semi-recommended (a bit too credulous and/or shallow): <li>Janine Benyus, <cite>Biomimcry: Innovation Inspired by Nature</cite> <li>Delta Willis, <cite>The Sand Dollar and the Slide Rule: Drawing Blueprints from Nature</cite> </ul> <ul>Dis-recommended: <li>George Hersey, <cite>The Monumental Impulse: Architecture's Biological Roots</cite> [Discussed <a href="../weblog/429.html">elsewhere</a>] </ul> <ul>To read: <li>Michael French, <cite>Invention and Evolution: Design in Nature and Engineering</cite> <li>Heinrich Hertel, <cite>Structure, Form, Movement</cite> [design-from-natural-adaptations] <li>C. Mattheck, <cite>Design in Nature: Learning from Trees</cite> <li>Pearce, <cite>Structure in Nature is a Strategy for Design</cite> [<a href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262660458">Blurb</a>] <li>Philip Steadman, <cite>The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts</cite> </ul>