Overview

"This work investigates many ties between the biological sciences and the building arts. Natural building materials, such as wood and limestone, originate in biological processes and much architectural ornament borrows from botany and zoology. Art historian George Hersey draws analogies between building types and animal species. He examines the relationship between physical structures and living organisms, from bridges to mosques and from molecules to mammals. Insects, mollusks and birds are given separate chapters, and three final chapters focus on architectural form and biological reproduction. Hersey also discusses architecture in connection with the body's interior processes and shows how buildings may be said to reproduce, adapt and evolve, like other inanimate or ""nonbiotic"" entities such as computer programs and robots."

Full Product Details

Author:   George L. Hersey
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 17.80cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.567kg
ISBN:  

9780262582032

ISBN 10:   0262582031
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   23 February 2001
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   No Longer Our Product
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Reviews

"""In this engaging, eminently readable, and frequently surprising exploration of the human urge to build, Hersey invites us to view architecture from an unaccustomed perspective - the perspective of biology.... With this coupling of architecture and biology, Hersey is fully engaged in that Enlightenment spirit biologist E. O. Wilson calls 'the quest for the unity of knowledge.""' - Norman Crowe, Department of Architecture, University of Notre Dame; ""A provocative, racy, seductive, yet rich and erudite essay."" - Joseph Rykwert, Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania"""

In this engaging, eminently readable, and frequently surprising exploration of the human urge to build, Hersey invites us to view architecture from an unaccustomed perspective - the perspective of biology.... With this coupling of architecture and biology, Hersey is fully engaged in that Enlightenment spirit biologist E. O. Wilson calls 'the quest for the unity of knowledge. ' - Norman Crowe, Department of Architecture, University of Notre Dame; A provocative, racy, seductive, yet rich and erudite essay. - Joseph Rykwert, Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania

Author Information

George Hersey is Emeritus Professor of Art History at Yale University. He is the author of numerous books, including The Evolution of Allure: Sexual Selection from the Medici Venus to the Incredible Hulk (MIT Press, 1996) and The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi (MIT Press, 1988).

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