Design in Nature

Design in Nature PDF Author: Adrian Bejan
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307744345
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how a single principle of physics, the constructal law, accounts for the evolution of these and many other designs in our world. Everything—from biological life to inanimate systems—generates shape and structure and evolves in a sequence of ever-improving designs in order to facilitate flow. River basins, cardiovascular systems, and bolts of lightning are very efficient flow systems to move a current—of water, blood, or electricity. Likewise, the more complex architecture of animals evolve to cover greater distance per unit of useful energy, or increase their flow across the land. Such designs also appear in human organizations, like the hierarchical “flowcharts” or reporting structures in corporations and political bodies. All are governed by the same principle, known as the constructal law, and configure and reconfigure themselves over time to flow more efficiently. Written in an easy style that achieves clarity without sacrificing complexity, Design in Nature is a paradigm-shifting book that will fundamentally transform our understanding of the world around us.

Design in Nature

Design in Nature PDF Author: Adrian Bejan
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307744345
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how a single principle of physics, the constructal law, accounts for the evolution of these and many other designs in our world. Everything—from biological life to inanimate systems—generates shape and structure and evolves in a sequence of ever-improving designs in order to facilitate flow. River basins, cardiovascular systems, and bolts of lightning are very efficient flow systems to move a current—of water, blood, or electricity. Likewise, the more complex architecture of animals evolve to cover greater distance per unit of useful energy, or increase their flow across the land. Such designs also appear in human organizations, like the hierarchical “flowcharts” or reporting structures in corporations and political bodies. All are governed by the same principle, known as the constructal law, and configure and reconfigure themselves over time to flow more efficiently. Written in an easy style that achieves clarity without sacrificing complexity, Design in Nature is a paradigm-shifting book that will fundamentally transform our understanding of the world around us.

Design and Nature II

Design and Nature II PDF Author: C. A. Brebbia
Publisher: Witpress
ISBN:
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Design and Nature.

Design and Nature VI

Design and Nature VI PDF Author: S. Hernandez
Publisher: WIT Press
ISBN: 1845645928
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Throughout history, many leading thinkers have been inspired by the parallels between nature and human design, in mathematics, engineering and other areas. Today, the huge increase in biological knowledge, developments in design engineering systems, together with the growth in computer power and developments in simulation modelling, have all made possible more comprehensive studies of nature.Conference topics include the following: Mechanics in nature; Nature and architecture; Natural materials and processes; Solutions from nature; Biomimetics and bio-inspiration; Biocapacity; Education in design and nature; Competition in nature; Biological engineering; Constructional theory; Locomotion in nature; Gravitational biology; Self-sustaining environments.It is these developments which have prompted the reconvening of this international conference on Design and Nature. It is intended that the meeting will bring together researchers from around the world working on a variety of studies involving nature and their significance for modern scientific thought and design.

Design and Nature

Design and Nature PDF Author: Kate Fletcher
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351111493
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Organised as a dialogue between nature and design, this book explores design ideas, opportunities, visions and practices through relating and uncovering experience of the natural world. Presented as an edited collection of 25 wide-ranging short chapters, the book explores the possibility of new relations between design and nature, beyond human mastery and understandings of nature as resource and by calling into question the longstanding role for design as agent of capitalism. The book puts forward ways in which design can form partnerships with living species and examines designers’ capacities for direct experience, awe, integrated relationships and new ways of knowing. It covers: • New design ethics of care • Indigenous perspectives • Prototyping with nature • Methods for new design and nature relations • A history of design and nature • Animist beliefs • De-centering human-centered design • Understanding nature has power and agency Design and Nature: A Partnership is a rich resource for designers who wish to learn to engage with sustainability from the ground up.

Design with Nature Now

Design with Nature Now PDF Author: Frederick R. Steiner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781558443938
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In 1969, Ian McHarg's seminal book, Design with Nature, set forth a new vision for regional planning using natural systems. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, a team of landscape architects and planners from PennDesign have showcased some of the most advanced ecological design projects in the world today. Written in clear language and featuring vivid color images, Design with Nature Now demonstrates McHarg's enduring influence on contemporary practitioners as they contend with climate change and other 21st-century challenges.

Design & Nature IV

Design & Nature IV PDF Author: C. A. Brebbia
Publisher: WIT Press
ISBN: 1845641205
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
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.

Design in Nature

Design in Nature PDF Author: Claus Mattheck
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364258747X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The chicken bone you nibbled yesterday and threw away was a high-tech product! Not only that: it was a superlative light-weight design, functionally adapted to its mechanical requirements. No engineer in the world has, as yet, been able to copy this structural member, which is excellently optimized in its external shape and its internal architecture as regards minimum weight and maximum strength. The tree stem on which you recently carved your initials has also, by life-long care for its body, steadily improved its internal and external structure and adapted optimally to new loads. In the course of its biomechanical self-optimization it will heal up the notch you cut as speedily as possible, in order to repair even the smallest weak point, which might otherwise cost it its life in the next storm. This book is dedicated to the understanding of this biomechanical optimization of shape. It is the synthesis of many years of extensive research using the latest computer methods at the Karlsruhe Research Centre to help understand the mechanism of biological self-optimization (adaptive growth) and to simulate it by computer. The method newly developed for this purpose was called CAO (Computer-Aided Optimization). With this method, it is possible to predict the growth of trees, bones and other biological structures from the tiger's claw to the sea urchin's skeleton.

Design and Nature III

Design and Nature III PDF Author: C. A. Brebbia
Publisher: WIT Press
ISBN: 1845641663
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Throughout history, many leading thinkers have been inspired by the parallels between nature and human design, in mathematics, engineering and other areas. This book publishes the results of a conference on the significance of nature for design.

Design, Nature, and Revolution

Design, Nature, and Revolution PDF Author: Tomás Maldonado
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781517907006
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
A landmark text in design discourse for a world desperately in need of redesign--back in print What good is design? In a world facing social unrest, political tribalism, and impending ecological doom, Tomás Maldonado poses philosophical inquiries into the role design plays during a moment of crisis and analyzes what "design" might mean as an ever-enlarging compass beyond stylization of specific objects. He discusses how design is both influenced by and central to ecological crisis. Written as a kind of obituary to the Modern movement's wave of failed "concrete utopias," Maldonado combines philosophy, sociology, radical countercultural thought, and the ecological sciences into a polemic that recenters design in the human environment.

With People in Mind

With People in Mind PDF Author: Rachel Kaplan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Beginning with techniques for consulting the public, the authors describe and examine the natural areas, like parks and nature reserves, that so often vary in quality and show how to improve them in ways that are compatible with the environment.