Animal Architecture

About this book

Construction behaviour occurs across the entire spectrum of the animal kingdom, from unicellular organisms through to insects, birds and mammals. It affects the survival of both builders and other organisms associated with the buildings or building materials, and is therefore of interest to biologists as a form of 'frozen behaviour' that extends through time, yielding information about the ecology, physiology and evolution of the animals involved. This book integrates ideas and concepts from all areas related to animal architecture.

Please note: not to be confused with the 1995 book by Juhani Pallasmaa or the 2014 book by Ingo Arndt of the same title.

Contents

1: Functions
2: Building materials: nature, origins, and processing
3: Behaviour and anatomy
4: Work organization and building complexity
5: Mechanics, growth, and design
6: Building costs, optimal solutions, and trade-offs
7: Animal architects as ecosystem engineers
8: Evolution

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