Nature in Design: The Shapes, Colors and Forms that Have Inspired Visual Invention

Nature in Design cleverly juxtaposes images of things natural and man-made: an armadillo and the hooded roof of Jørn Utzon's Sidney Opera House, the Finnish woodlands and an interior by Alvar Aalto, a bird's nest and a "cocoon lounge" from the 1960s, a fish skeleton and Santiago Calatrava's Lyon Station. The photographs alone will amuse and amaze, but Alan Powers's book could also serve as an insightful, intelligent introduction to basic principles of design, which are nearly always based on or in reaction to the natural world, as those principles have shifted over time.

Drawing often surprisingly sound connections, Powers examines the patterns and forms found in nature and how man has imitated them (or attempted to do so) since the beginning of human creativity. The double helix form underlies a Renaissance staircase at Pozzo di San Patrizio in Italy; animal skins are imitated in textile designs not only for the aesthetic impact the patterns provide but because they are structurally effective; illustrations in children's books and the colors of traffic signs are conceived and designed with our natural associations to such images and colors in mind.

From the Fibonacci sequence to fractals, from the Golden Section and the spiral of a nautilus shell to the structural tension in a cobra's skin, from Sir Thomas Lipton's tree house to Alice Waters's organic revolution, from Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp to the Versus line of makeup by Versace, Powers's interests are wide-ranging, his discussions thoughtful and refreshingly intricate. --Liana Fredley