The Monumental Impulse: Architecture's Biological RootsA highly original view of the relationship between architecture and the biological sciences. We humans owe an immense architectural debt to many other species. Indeed, the first hexagons humans saw may have been in honeycombs, the first skyscrapers termitaries (termite high-rises), and the first tents those of African weaver ants. In The Monumental Impulse, art historian George Hersey investigates many ties between the biological sciences and the building arts. Natural building materials such as wood and limestone, for example, originate in biological processes. Much architectural ornament borrows from botany and zoology. Hersey draws striking analogies between building types and animal species. He examines the relationship between physical structures and living organisms, from bridges to mosques, 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. The book is both learned and entertaining, and is abundantly illustrated with fascinating visual comparisons. |
Contents
Prebiotic Molecules | 2 |
DNA and Other Spiral Communications | 5 |
Crystals | 11 |
Viruses | 15 |
Cells | 17 |
SingleCelled Organisms | 21 |
LEAVES AND FLOWERS | 25 |
Phyllotaxis | 26 |
Northwest Coast BirdArchitecture | 92 |
MAMMALS TERRITORY AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS | 97 |
Primate Territories | 98 |
human Territories | 100 |
Territorial Symbolism in Architecture | 103 |
Territorial Colossi | 104 |
Territories of Human Shape | 108 |
Procreating Colossi | 111 |
Ruskin Riegl Baltrušaitis and Mendell | 29 |
Spiral Symmetry | 32 |
Fibonacci Distributions | 35 |
TransSpecific Morphologies | 38 |
SHELLS | 41 |
Mollusca and Spirals | 42 |
Seashells and Stairs | 48 |
Malacological Mapping | 51 |
Rocaille | 54 |
Terebra | 55 |
Seashell monoliths | 58 |
INSECTS | 61 |
The Monumental impulse of the Bees | 62 |
The Bees Body Bauplan | 64 |
Honeycombs | 65 |
Honeycombs Cells | 69 |
Beehives | 70 |
Ants Pyramids | 72 |
Terimites Villes Radieuses | 74 |
BIRDS | 79 |
Dinosaurs and Bridges | 80 |
Weaverbirds | 82 |
Bowerbirds | 84 |
Ornamented Bodies | 88 |
Flight and Feeding | 90 |
PENIS PARADIGMS | 115 |
The Penis as an Architectural Attractor | 116 |
Sperm Competition | 118 |
Homunculi | 120 |
Obelisks | 123 |
The Penis as a Tower | 128 |
The Female Genital Palace | 137 |
The Reproductive Tract | 138 |
More Sperm Competition | 143 |
Anatomies and Their Names | 144 |
Vaginal Fountains and Fetal Skycrapers | 145 |
Samarasa | 147 |
Eggs Fruit Nuts and Domes | 149 |
THE BIOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURAL REPRODUCTION | 157 |
Mendelian Genetics | 158 |
Architectural DNA and the Chaos Game | 162 |
The Poggioreale Principle | 164 |
Fractal Reproduction | 167 |
Thoughts on Architectural Heritability | 172 |
WHERE TO NOW? | 179 |
NOTES | 185 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 207 |
233 | |