Saeed Arida, Becca Edson MIT, School of Architecture, Cambridge, USA 323
project. This process was intended to push the students away from their objects and
to develop systems that suggest some architectural interpretations.
In Becca’s case, her five seeds dealt mainly with pressure. As illustrated in the
diagram below, the first seed dealt with uniform pressure and was called “depth 1”,
while the second dealt with focused one and was called “depth 2”. The third dealt
with zoning. The fourth one dealt with section. The fifth one dealt with density.
figure 10
- Identify emergent spatial conditions
Students used the newly constructed seeds to produce new hybrids. Students were
then asked to identify certain spatial conditions and build a catalogue of them as
they emerge from the hybridization process.
For instance, one of Becca’s spatial conditions is called “centered” which is con-
structed by mixing a hundred percent density with sixty percent section. The “fold”
condition is constructed by mixing fifty four percent density, eighty seven percent
section, and eighty one percent zone.
This was the end of the first phase. It was clear, at this stage, that students had
complete control over their systems. After a systemized and rigorous process, students
built an intuition of what the tool could do. Although they could not precisely predict
the outcome of the hybridization process, students were able to predict what type of
a spatial condition is going to be produced by the numerical mixing.
figure 11