[A belated response. Katie, would you please summarize the responses to
design-l, or perhaps post the article text when it is ready?]
_By Nature's Design_. Photgraphs by William Neill, text by Pat Murphy.
Chronicle Books, San Francisco. ISBN 0-8118-0329-5. About natural form, &
really a design book, but not one I've ever seen referenced in any design
course.
_The Fractal Geometry of Nature_, Benoit B. Mandelbrot, W.H. Freeman and
Company, New York. ISBN 0-7167-1186-9. Also really a design book. Rather
obscure mathematics (a degree helps in reading it), worthwhile ideas.
Way too many science fiction novels to mention (urban dystopias were a
staple of 50s SF), but especially:
_Cities in Flight_, James Blish. Primarily adventure fiction, but the
image of picking up whole cities & moving them off into space has stuck
with me and the ideas of culture in the long span.
_Foundation_, Isaac Asimov. Again, the image of a whole world turned into
a city stuck.
_The Naked Sun_, Isaac Asimov. A mystery set in a New York more crowded,
perhaps, than current Tokyo.
And, finally:
_The Decline of the West_, Oswald Spengler. English translation by ?
Cranky and insightful philosophical work. The discussion of space, time,
and culture, and architecture as an expresssion of a culture's space-idea
(all couched in German philosophical obscurity, alas) is worth a look.
Spengler predicted, fairly accurately, Western culture's spatial
disposition in the late 20th century & is worth considering for his
observations on the space-concepts of other cultures as well.
Randolph Fritz
Software engineer, network wizard, and architecture student
randolph@xxxxxxxxxx
Mountain View, California, Earth
design-l, or perhaps post the article text when it is ready?]
_By Nature's Design_. Photgraphs by William Neill, text by Pat Murphy.
Chronicle Books, San Francisco. ISBN 0-8118-0329-5. About natural form, &
really a design book, but not one I've ever seen referenced in any design
course.
_The Fractal Geometry of Nature_, Benoit B. Mandelbrot, W.H. Freeman and
Company, New York. ISBN 0-7167-1186-9. Also really a design book. Rather
obscure mathematics (a degree helps in reading it), worthwhile ideas.
Way too many science fiction novels to mention (urban dystopias were a
staple of 50s SF), but especially:
_Cities in Flight_, James Blish. Primarily adventure fiction, but the
image of picking up whole cities & moving them off into space has stuck
with me and the ideas of culture in the long span.
_Foundation_, Isaac Asimov. Again, the image of a whole world turned into
a city stuck.
_The Naked Sun_, Isaac Asimov. A mystery set in a New York more crowded,
perhaps, than current Tokyo.
And, finally:
_The Decline of the West_, Oswald Spengler. English translation by ?
Cranky and insightful philosophical work. The discussion of space, time,
and culture, and architecture as an expresssion of a culture's space-idea
(all couched in German philosophical obscurity, alas) is worth a look.
Spengler predicted, fairly accurately, Western culture's spatial
disposition in the late 20th century & is worth considering for his
observations on the space-concepts of other cultures as well.
Randolph Fritz
Software engineer, network wizard, and architecture student
randolph@xxxxxxxxxx
Mountain View, California, Earth