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

321 Pages·2008·2.28 MB·English

by  Philip Steadman

The Evolution of
Designs
The Evolution of Designs 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 beginnings of the science in the early nineteenth century. They have
sought not just to imitate the forms of plants and animals, but to find methods
in design analogous to the processes of growth and evolution in nature.
Biological ideas are prominent in the writings of many modern architects,
of whom Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright are just the most famous.
Le Corbusier declared biology to be ‘the great new word in architecture
and planning’.
Since the first edition of The Evolution of Designs was published in
1979, there has been a resurgence of interest in biological analogy. This is in
part because of the introduction of computer methods in design in the 1980s
and 1990s which have made possible a new kind of ‘biomorphic’ architecture
through ‘genetic algorithms’ and other programming techniques. This new
revised edition of this classic work adds an extended Afterword covering these
more recent developments.
Philip Steadman is Professor of Urban and Built Form Studies at The Bartlett
School (Faculty of the Built Environment), University College London, UK.

The Evolution of
Designs
Biological analogy in architecture and
the applied arts
A revised edition
Philip Steadman
First published 1979
by the Syndics of Cambridge University Press
This revised edition published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2 008.
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© 1979, 2008 Philip Steadman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Steadman, Philip, 1942–
The evolution of designs : biological analogy in architecture and the applied arts /
Philip Steadman.—Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–415–44752–2 (hbk : alk. paper)—ISBN 978–0–415–44753–9 (pbk :
alk. paper)—ISBN 978–0–203–93427–2 (ebk) 1. Architecture and biology.
2. Architectural design. I. Title.
NA2543.B56S74 2007
720.1′05—dc22
2007037008
ISBN 0-203-93427-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0–415–44752–6 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–44753–4 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0–203–93427–X (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–44752–2 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–44753–9 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–203–93427–2 (ebk)
The most expert Artists among the Ancients ... were of [the] Opinion
that an Edifice was like an Animal, so that in the Formation of it we
ought to imitate Nature.
L. B. Alberti, Ten Books on Architecture,
trans. J. Leoni (London, 1955), book 9, p. 194.

Contents
List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Preface to the revised edition xv
1 Introduction 1
2 The organic analogy 8
3 The classificatory analogy: Building types and natural species 21
4 The anatomical analogy: Engineering structure and the
animal skeleton 31
5 The ecological analogy: The environments of artefacts and
organisms 54
6 The Darwinian analogy: Trial and error in the evolution of
organisms and artefacts 71
7 The evolution of decoration 99
8 Tools as organs or as extensions of the physical body 119
9 How to speed up craft evolution? 131
10 Design as a process of growth 145
11 ‘Biotechnics’: Plants and animals as inventors 153
12 Hierarchical structure and the adaptive process: Biological
analogy in Alexander’s Notes on the Synthesis of Form 163
13 The consequences of the biological fallacy: Functional
determinism 179
14 The consequences of the biological fallacy: Historical
determinism and the denial of tradition 201
15 What remains of the analogy? The history and science of
the artificial 217
Afterword: Developments since 1980 237
Notes 274
Index 295
vii

Illustrations
1 Metacarpal bone from vulture’s wing, stiffened after the
manner of a Warren’s truss. From D’Arcy W. Thompson,
On Growth and Form (Cambridge, 1917; abridged edn,
1961), figure 101, p. 236 13
2 Skeleton of fossil bison, and two-armed cantilever of the
Forth Bridge. From D’Arcy W. Thompson, On Growth
and Form (Cambridge, 1917; abridged edn, 1961), figure
104, p. 243 and figure 106, p. 245 14
3 Analogies between organisms, mechanisms and works of art 14
4 Francesco di Giorgio, human figure inscribed in church
plan. From R. Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the
Age of Humanism (London, 1962), plate 1a 17
5 Goethe’s Urpflanze. From J. A. Thompson and Patrick
Geddes, Life: Outlines of General Biology (2 vols., Williams
and Norgate, London, 1931), vol. 1, figure 95, p. 677 24
6 J. N. L. Durand, modern theatres drawn to a common scale.
From Recueil et Parallèle des Edifices (Paris, 1801), plate 38 28
7 G. Cuvier, restored skeleton of Anaplotherium. From
Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles (4 vols., Paris, 1812),
vol. 3, 7th Mémoire, following p. 75 37
8 A. Bartholomew, diagram comparing the counter-
abutments of Gothic vaulting with the human skeleton.
From Specifications for Practical Architecture (London,
1840), section 474 40
9 E. E. Viollet-le-Duc, plan drawings of apse at Notre-Dame
de Châlons. From Dictionnaire Raisonné de l’Architecture
Française du XIe au XVIe Siècle (10 vols., Paris,
1854–68), ‘Construction’, vol. 4, p. 75 42
10 Galileo Galilei, diagram showing bones of different
proportions, to illustrate the ‘principle of similitude’. From
Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche Intorno a Due
Nuove Scienze (Leiden, 1638; trans. H. Crew and A. de
Salvio, New York, 1914), p. 131 48
11 P. E. Nobbs, proportions of columns determined in
relation to differing imposed loads. From Design: A
Treatise on the Discovery of Form (Oxford, 1937), figure 45 49
ix