Dune City, a prototype in the Sahara Desert in 2008 by Ordinary Vis. Ordinary ltd/Magnus Larsson & Alex Kaiser

In their new book, authors Blaine Brownell and Marc Swackhamer describe how designers and architects have started to copy nature, with pavilions designed to wilt into the forest after several decades, wooden structures that change shape with the weather and chairs grown from crystal.

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion designed by Achim Menges and Jan Knippers in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2012. ICD/ITKE

The cloud,in Shanghai,in China,designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen in 2013.Rasmun Taun

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