450 EAAE no 35 Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design: Advances in Technology and Changes in Pedagogy
Notes
1 Morphogenesis is derived from the Greek terms, ‘morphe’ (shape/form) and ‘genesis’ (crea-
tion).
2 On this see Michael Hensel, Achim Menges, Michael Weinstock (eds.), Emergence: Mor-
phogenetic Design Strategies, London: Wiley, July 2004; Michael Hensel, Achim Menges,
Michael Weinstock (eds.), Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design, London:
Wiley, March 2006.
3 As Achim Menges comments: ‘Architecture as a material practice is mainly based on
design approaches that are characterised by a hierarchical relationship that prioritises the
generation of form over its subsequent materialisation. Equipped with representational
tools intended for explicit, scalar geometric descriptions, the architect creates a scheme
through a range of design criteria that leave the inherent morphological and material
capacities of the employed material systems largely unconsidered. Ways of materialisa-
tion, production and construction are strategised and devised as top-down engineered,
material solutions only after defining the shape of the building and the location of
tectonic elements... An alternative morphological approach to architectural design
entails unfolding morphological complexity and performative capacity from material
constituents without differentiating between formation and materialisation processes.’
Achim Menges, ‘Polymorphism’ in Hensel, Menges, Weinstock (eds.), Techniques and
Technologies in Morphogenetic Design, p. 79.
4 See Mark Burry, ‘Virtually Gaudi’; Mark Goulthorpe, ‘Gaudi’s Hanging Presence’; Lars Spuy-
broek, ‘Softoffice’ in Neil Leach, David Turnbull and Chris Williams (eds.), Digital Tectonics,
London: Wiley, 2004.
5 As Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Moussavi comment, their interest is to recognise the
other disciplines in the building industry not simply as offering a service that should be
treated as an afterthought in the design process, but rather an important range of design
considerations that should be embraced and incorporated into the early stages of the
design process itself. Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera Polo (Foreign Office Architects),
‘Rollercoaster Construction’ in Neil Leach (ed.), Designing for a Digital World, London: Wiley,
2002, pp. 80-87.
6 On this see ‘Introduction’ in ‘Design by Algorithm’ in Neil Leach, David Turnbull and Chris
Williams (eds.), Digital Tectonics, London: Wiley, 2004, pp. 4-12.
7 On this see Manuel Delanda, ‘Deleuze and the Use of the Genetic Algorithm in Architecture’
in Neil Leach (ed.), Designing for a Digital World, London: Wiley, 2003, pp. 117-120.
8 On this see Michael Weinstock and Nikolaos Stathopoulos, ‘Advanced Simulation in Design’
in Hensel, Menges, Weinstock (eds.), Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design,
p. 56.
9 On this see Chris Williams, ‘Design by Algorithm’ in Leach, Turnbull and Williams (eds.),
Digital Tectonics, pp. 78-85.
10 Annealing refers to the method of heating and cooling metals. The eifForm program
simulates this process, so that the eventual form ‘crystallises’. The process is stochastic
because it contains a random element to the search process, which is controlled to allow
for exploration of concepts that are initially worse than the current design. It is therefore
also non-monotonic, in that it is constantly under revision, often negating previous devel-
opments. For a discussion of the eifForm program see Kristina Shea, ‘Creating Synthesis
Partners’ in Architectural Design, no. 72, pp. 42-45.
11 See Manuel Delanda, War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, New York: Zone Books, 1992; A
Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, New York: Zone Books/Swerve Editions, 1997; Intensive
Science and Virtual Philosophy, New York and London: Continuum, 2002.