“On Growth and Form”, written by biologist and mathematician D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson [1860-1948], is considered the greatest work of prose in twentieth-century science, highlighting the role of physics and mechanics in determining the form and structure of organisms. The book immediately became a classic for exploring natural geometries in the dynamics of growth and physical processes. Thompson reveals himself to be a great scientist, sensitive to the fascination and beauty of the natural world, writing in a style that led the specialized press to call his work “as much good literature as science; a discourse on science as if it were a matter of humanity.”
The book covers an extensive range of morphological studies. It documents the laws governing the scale of organisms and their growth, the statics and dynamics of configuration in cells and tissues—including geometric packing, membranes under tension, symmetry, and cell division—as well as engineering and geodesic skeletons in simple organisms. Thompson reveals form not as a given fact, but as a product of dynamic forces shaped by energy flows and stages of growth. Many architects, eager to discover formal patterns to structure architectural determinism, turned to Thompson's work to adopt his perspective. Buckminster Fuller, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Frei Otto each, in their own way, posed significant questions about our understanding of life on Earth as a global phenomenon.
