Yeah, so, they might be a little light on the mechanistic side (i.e., their concept of mutation is a bit Fantastic Four-y), but I've got to give props to nocc design studio for their new collection "radiation" for both generating a chair that I would like to own and drawing inspiration from evolution.

The basic concept of the collection was to imagine the versions of archetypal furniture that might occur if the furniture's "genes" were mutated.

The real beauty is that in their imaginings they developed many variants and THEN considered whether the variants were beneficial or deleterious. Like variation in nature, most variants were deleterious (i.e., they came up with some really uncomfortable looking chairs.

While some artists and designers try to capitalize on niche markets by making a nod to science and nature, nocco has embraced evolution in an intelligent and artistic way. Not only does evolution benefit from their aesthetic representation, but their design benefits from an understanding of science and by embracing the way our world actually works. 

The next time someone tells you that science takes the beauty out of the world, you just show them the "hypertrophy chair". 

*Hat tip to Designboom.