structural coloration
1. STICK.S lightweight structural system
STICK.S represents the conclusions of a two-year research and development (R+D) dissertation for the MA in architecture. Inspired by the morphological performance of the human body structural system, this project seeks to defin...
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2. Carotenoids create yellow color: American goldfinch
"The coloration of feathers can be caused by carotenoids (usually producing yellow, orange and red), melanins (usually producing brown, black and grey), other pigments (such as found in some parrot feathers) or by nano-scale reflective tissues (us...
3. Pigment granules create colors: damselflies
"The brilliant metallic colours of many Odonata, especially damselflies, derive from the structural arrangement of pigment granules. Pigment in the wings of such species as Agrion virgo is similarly distorted by light to produce resplendent shifti...
4. Wood self-assembles: trees
A better understanding of how the cell wall of wood forms will someday help wood scientists assemble wood-like composites without using trees. The current hypothesis is that the cell wall of wood does not require biochemistry to form, but self-ass...
5. Skin maintains structural rigidity: human
"A novel technique to generate three-dimensional Euclidean weavings, composed of close-packed, periodic arrays of one-dimensional fibres, is described. Some of these weavings are shown to dilate by simple shape changes of the constituent fibres (s...
6. Bones: Form Follows Force
"The structural system of the human body consisting of bones, joints and muscles represents an efficient structural design model better adapted to dynamic factors and resistance than most of the currently designed structures and buildings which ar...
7. Spicules are rigid structural materials: sponges
"There are yet other rigid materials, what Wainwright et al. (1976) refer to as 'stony materials' and Vincent (1990) calls 'biological ceramics.' These are distinguished by being very heavily mineralized, with more mineral (some inorganic salt) th...
8. Lipochromes create red feathers: scarlet macaw
"In this first examination of the variety of colourful pigments present in parrot feathers, we studied 44 parrot species from 27 genera and found that they all use the same set of five lipochromes to colour their feathers red…Red parrot fea...
9. Skin protects from water loss: humans
"The vertebrate integument represents an evolutionary compromise between the needs for mechanical protection and those of sensing the environment and regulating the exchange of materials and energy. Fibrous keratins evolved as a means of strengthe...
10. Investing resources increases competitive success: trees
"The development of the 'tree' habit in many different plant families must reflect a high degree of competitive success for this life form. The expenditure of materials in short supply in the production of long-lived, mechanically robust forms mus...
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