Introduction -- The organic analogy -- The classificatory analogy: building types and natural species -- The anatomical analogy: engineering structure and the animal skeleton -- The ecological analogy: the environments of artefacts and organisms -- 6. The Darwinian analogy: trial and error in the evolution of organisms and artefacts -- The evolution of decoration -- Tools as organs or as extensions of the physical body -- How to speed up craft evolution? -- Design as a process of growth -- 'Biotechnics': plants and animals as inventors -- Hierarchical structure and the adaptive process: biological analogy in Alexander's Notes on the synthesis of form -- The consequences of the biological fallacy: functional determinism -- The consequences of the biological fallacy: historical determinism and the denial of tradition -- What remains of the analogy? The history and science of the artificial -- Afterword: developments since 1980.