“What we appreciate in nature cannot be transformed literally into a manmade product. The rugged configuration of a piece of driftwood along the beach loses its character when transformed into a table lamp, because the relationship between it and the forces that created it originally are no longer its reason for being. To learn from nature, therefore, one must understand the principles underlying natural forms and their evolution, transposing those processes into our own. We should not imitate form, but rather emulate process."
from the Kaplan study guide for the Programming, Planning, and Practice ARE