The Geometry Of Natural Structure

First published by the McDonnell-Douglas Advanced Research Laboratories in 1969 with the title, Handbook of Structure, Research Communication 75, it became the most requested publication in the history of DARL. A significantly expanded version was published by Eudaemon Press in 1972 with the title Natural Structure: Toward a Form Language. The third edition appeared as a Dover Science Book Publication, titled, The Geometrical Foundation of Natural Structure beginning in 1979. In the forty years that The Geometry of Natural Structure has been available to the public, the work has continued to be a valuable resource tool for scientists, architects, and artists. The Geometry of Natural Structure is a comprehensive work on geometric form in space. A convenient and stimulating handbook for scientists and designers, it covers the regular and semi-regular polyhedra, their various symmetries, how they fit together to fill space, and other structural considerations. Beginning with an introduction that places geometric structure in its proper mathematical context, the author then presents a detailed description of the core geometric forms of natural structure: polygons, polyhedra, aggregations of spheres, and packings of polyhedra. Topics considered include: the inter-relationships among geometrical/ topological forms, the unit cell concept, Golden Section, surface area and volume relationships of polyhedra, sphere coverings, Euler's law, and polyhedra distortions. Mr. Williams concludes with a rewarding discussion of the methodologies by which forms can be generated: truncation, rotation-translation, augmentation-deletion, fistulation, and others. The many tables located through¬out the text are extremely valuable for reference.