Designers and artists have always looked to nature for inspiration and materials, but only recently have they been able to alter and incorporate living organisms in their work. In a world with finite resources and a growing population, design that mimics or appropriates the sustainable template of nature is likely to prove as vital as it is novel. 'Bio Design' examines some seventy projects (concepts, prototypes and completed designs) that cover the fields of architecture, industrial processes, education, fine art, material engineering and bioengineering. Each project is illustrated by a short text, images and captions that combine to explain the problems the venture tackles, and how living materials and processes were harnessed to solve them in sustainable and aesthetically pleasing ways. Many of the solutions also provoke thought about manipulating life for human ends

"... presents an emerging and often radical approach to design that draws on biological tenets and even incorporates the use of living materials into structures, objects, and tools. Each chapter introduces a different theme, from designing for ecological integration to the use of speculative deisgn and art as a teaching tool. Taken together, several of the projects profiled here reflect a pervasive shift in societal priorities, toward sustainable approaches to building and manufacturing. This unifying prupose is driving increased collaboration between designers and biologists--an essential ingredient in many of the projects--and offers thrilling new possibilities for design, art, and architecture." --p. 8

• Vital design Paola Antonelli
• The hybrid frontier
• Beyond biomimicry
• The architectural hybrid: living structures and new ecological integrations
• Ecological object engineering: replacing industrial and mechanical processes
• Experimental functions: speculative objects, teaching tools and provocations
• Dynamic beauty: artwork crawling off the auction block
• Profiling programs and collaborations: consilience in the 21st century