Explore and investigate the structures, forms and geometries found in the natural world and how we use these in 21st Century design with specific reference to architecture. By analyzing and looking deeper at the natural world around us I hope to have some conclusive writing on this topic.
Research Ties
Professor R Knott Ph.D, M.Sc, B.Sc (Pure Maths), C.Math, FIMA, C.Eng, MBCS, CITP Visiting Fellow, Department of Mathematics, School of Electronics and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey who has excellent research in the mathmatic field which has aided my study. You can hear Ron's on BBC Radio 4 Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time (November 29, 2007) discussing "The Fibonacci Numbers" by following this link.
Other notable persons include Professor M.A Hann, [BA (Leeds) MPhil (Leeds) PhD (Leeds)] whose subject interests include fundamental aspects of design geometry and the development of methodologies to synthesis and analyze designs. (More on Prof. Hann here).
As well as these two professors, further afield in South Korea Professor Hee Bong Lee (Faculty of Architecture) of Chung-Ang University, Seoul who I studied under during a summer programme, who has introduced ideas and perspectives of natural design in traditional Korean Architecture from ancient dynastic Korea to contemporary design in what is now one of the world's fastest growing economies constantly rebuilding and innovating architecture.
Online
There are already a couple of great sites online looking at this issue namely AskNature.org which has a wonderful network or people across all disciplines of design, science and engineering sharing information and research on the role natural design has to play in the world.
Extract from Ask Nature's website:
"Imagine 3.8 billion years of design brilliance available for free, at the moment of creation, to any sustainability innovator in the world.
Imagine nature's most elegant ideas organized by design and engineering function, so you can enter "filter salt from water" and see how mangroves, penguins, and shorebirds desalinate without fossil fuels.
Now imagine you can meet the people who have studied these organisms, and together you can create the next great bio-inspired solution."
This is a great website in which I hope will put me in touch with some influential people in the field and benefit my studies.