Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design (Architectural Design March April 2006 Vol. 76 No. 2)

131 Pages·2006·13.43 MB·English

by  Michael Hensel

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4
Techniques and Technologies in
Morphogenetic
Design
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4Architectural Design
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4Architectural Design
Forthcoming Titles 2006
May/June 2006, Profile No 181
The New Europe
Guest-edited by Valentina Croci
4 In May 2004, Europe was redefined. Ten countries – Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia – joined the
European Union. The full impact of the forces that this historical event unleashed has
yet to be understood. For not only will Europe’s enlargement have
an unequivocal bearing on ‘old’ Europe, but also on the countries of ‘new Europe’. As the
economic and political balance of the enlarged European Union is being redrawn, the
identities of the newly joined countries is in flux – the majority of the joining states
were under communist rule less than two decades ago.
Contemporary architecture in these 10countries necessarily presents itself as a
process that is anything but linear. It has to deal with the hybridisation, with new glob-
al trends, as well as with the permanence of structures and national heritage.
Architects, mostly practising in the private rather than public sphere, are contending
The New
with the various political inconsistencies of administrations undergoing change.
Europe
The very different panorama in each new member state avoids generalisation. As a
broken mirror, this issue of 2provides a partial view of the very crucial issues that
contemporary architecture has to cope with. Local contributors look at the trans-forma-
tion of the city and national heritage, while also spotting a new generational fringe of
local architects. The cultural richness and ethnic diversity drawn by this publication
also raise the looming question of what the identity of the new Europe might be in the
future.
July/August 2006, Profile No 182
Programming Cultures: Art and Architecture in the Age of Software
Guest-edited by Mike Silver
4 In May 2004, Europe was redefined. Ten countries – Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia – joined the
European Union. The full impact of the forces that this historical event unleashed has
yet to be understood. For not only will Europe’s enlargement have an unequivocal bear-
ing on ‘old’ Europe, but also on the countries of ‘new Europe’. As the economic and
political balance of the enlarged European Union is being redrawn, the identities of the
newly joined countries is in flux – the majority of the joining states were under commu-
nist rule less than two decades ago.
Contemporary architecture in these 10countries necessarily presents itself as a
process that is anything but linear. It has to deal with the hybridisation, with new glob-
al trends, as well as with the permanence of structures and national heritage.
Programming Cultures: Architects, mostly practising in the private rather than public sphere, are contending
Art + Architecture in the Age of Software with the various political inconsistencies of administrations undergoing change.
The very different panorama in each new member state avoids generalisation. As a
broken mirror, this issue of 2provides a partial view of the very crucial issues that
contemporary architecture has to cope with. Local contributors look at the trans-forma-
tion of the city and national heritage, while also spotting a new generational fringe of
local architects. The cultural richness and ethnic diversity drawn by this publication
also raise the looming question of what the identity of the new Europe might be in the
future.
AD Morph. 001-002 1/6/06 2:49 pm Page 1
Architectural Design Techniques and Technologies
March/April 2006
in Morphogenetic Design
4
Guest-edited by
Michael Hensel, Achim Menges + Michael Weinstock
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ISBN-13 9780470015292
ISBN-10 0470015292
Profile No 180
Vol 76 No 2
44
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Contents
54
+
70
4
Editorial Instrumental Geometry Interior Eye
Helen Castle Achim Menges Plus, Plus Ça Change at
4 42 the Museum of Modern Art
in New York
Jayne Merkel
Introduction Advanced Simulation in Design 98+
Towards Self-Organisational and Michael Weinstock +
Multiple-Performance Capacity in Nikolaos Stathopoulos
Architecture 54 Building Profile
Michael Hensel Dirk Cove
5 Jeremy Melvin
Differentiation and Performance:
102+
Multi-Performance Architectures
Computing Self-Organisation: and Modulated Environments
Environmentally Sensitive Michael Hensel + Achim Menges Home Run
Growth Modelling 60 Clarion Quay
Michael Hensel Robert Payne
12 106+
Manufacturing Diversity
Achim Menges
(Synthetic) Life Architectures: 70 Practice Profile
Ramifications and Potentials of a Metrogramma
Literal Biological Paradigm for Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi
Architectural Design Polymorphism 112+
Michael Hensel Achim Menges
18 78
McLean’s Nuggets
Will McLean
Self-Organisation and the Material and Digital Design 122+
Structural Dynamics of Plants Synthesis
Michael Weinstock Michael Hensel + Achim Menges
26 88 Site Lines
Australian Wildlife Health Centre,
Healesville Sanctuary, Melbourne
Self-Organisation and Material Leon van Schaik
Constructions 124+
Michael Weinstock
34
3
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Editorial
The cover title of this issue, Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design, provides it with a very wide
frame: morphogenesis pertains not only to the development of form and structure in an organism, but also
to an organism’s evolutionary development over time. It is, in effect, a substantial signpost that in a broad
brushstroke takes in the whole gamut of natural systems, both current and in evolution. It is indicative of
the not inconsiderable, some might say infinite, project that guest-editors Michael Hensel, Achim Menges
and Michael Weinstock have taken on through their activities in the Emergence and Design Group and
their teaching and research at the Architectural Association (aa) in London. By studying the complex and
dynamic exchange between organisms and their environment, they have sought out a new model for
architecture – one that through the application of biochemical processes and the functionality of life is in
empathy rather than at odds with natural ecology. By keeping their eye on this higher goal, the group is
providing a prescient new ecological paradigm for architecture that seeks, through new scientific advances
in the visualisation and understanding of natural processes and systems, to leave behind the known
structural and material building blocks of architecture.
What the generic quality of the ‘morphogenetic design’ tag belies is the specificity and focus that Hensel,
Menges and Weinstock have brought to their subject in this volume. This issue is the sequel to
4Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies, published two years ago. It is, however, no Emergence II.
Whereas in the first issue, the potential of the project was broadly being asserted through an
understanding of what emergence could bring to architecture (emergence insinuating the complexity that
is acquired through the evolution of organisms over time, where the sum is more than the parts), the stress
on self-organisation in this issue isolates a particular aspect. The content spirals outwards, as outlined by
Hensel in his introduction opposite, clarifying first what self-organisation can mean in the natural world
and then discussing its application for material sciences and engineering. There is also further
investigation of morphogenetic techniques and technologies, as illustrated by the group’s own research
and the network they have built up among fellow-minded practitioners in aligning disciplines. While the
group’s approach is becoming more established and they are boring down effectively into it, their influence
is also widening. All three proponents are regularly invited to teach in venerable institutions abroad, with
Menges having recently been awarded a professorship of form generation and materialisation in Germany.
In 2004, the focus of the group’s activities was largely concentrated in the recent establishment of the
Masters programme at the aa, but two years later its first few years of graduates are working and spreading
the word as practitioners in key firms and other international institutions are buying into this approach
and recognising its inherent potential. 4
Helen Castle
4
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Introduction
Towards Self-Organisational
and Multiple-Performance
Capacity in Architecture
Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design expands and develops the themes of
the previous, highly successful Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies issue of 4 (Vol
74, No 3, 2004), which was also guest-edited by Michael Hensel, Achim Menges and Michael
Weinstock of the Emergence and Design Group. While the first volume elucidated the
concepts of emergence and self-organisation in relation to the discipline of architecture, this
issue augments its theoretical and methodological foundation within a biological paradigm
for architectural design, while also discussing promising, related, instrumental techniques for
design, manufacturing and construction. Michael Hensel introduces the issue and explains
how it addresses a much broader range of scales, from the molecular to that of macro-
structure and, beyond, to ecological relations.
Coloured X-ray of hyacinth flowers at different stages of growth.
Environmentally sensitive growth can deliver a paradigm for architectural
design, as discussed in ‘Computing Self-Organisation’ (see page 12).
5
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Complex adaptive systems entail processes of self-
organisation and emergence. However, both concepts express
very different characteristics of a system’s behaviour.1Self-
organisation can be described as a dynamic and adaptive
process through which systems achieve and maintain
structure without external control. The latter does not
preclude extrinsic forces, since all physcial systems exist
within the context of physics, for as long as these do not
assert control over intrinsic processes from outside.
Common form-finding methods, for example, deploy the self-
organisation of material systems exposed to physics to
achieve optimisation of performance capacity. Self-
organisational systems often display emergent properties or
behaviours that arise out of the coherent interaction between
lower-level entities, and the aim is to utilise and
instrumentalise behaviour as a response to stimuli towards
performance-oriented designs.
Both issues of 3guest-edited by the Emergence and Design
Group seek to outline processes of self-organisation and
emergence, and to integrate them within a theoretical,
methodological and practice-oriented agenda for architectural
design. This issue investigates how self-organisation promotes
functions and properties of systems through an increase of
order, how behaviour and performance capacity arises from
these processes, how materials and material systems can be
Robotic timber-manufacturing employed for the 2005 Serpentine
conditioned accordingly, which manufacturing and assembly
Pavilion, as discussed in ‘Manufacturing Diversity’ (see page 70).
approaches can facilitate this, and how these processes and
approaches can be harnessed for architectural design to
achieve a higher level of performativity and, thus, ultimately a
higher level of sustainability.
Self-Organisation
The first section focuses on the introduction and discussion of
processes of self-organisation based on a biological paradigm,
and examines their uses in architectural design.
How do plants grow in relation to multiple extrinsic
influences? How can environmentally sensitive growth be
instrumentalised in architectural design? What are the
available methods and tools, and how can they serve
architectural design? Such questions are pursued by Michael
Hensel in ‘Computing Self-Organisation: Environmentally
Sensitive Growth Modelling’. The article examines the work
of Professor Prusinkiewicz’s team at the Department of
Computer Science at the University of Calgary in Alberta,
Canada, and explicates its potential value for architectural
design.
In ‘(Synthetic) Life Architectures: Ramifications and
Potentials of a Literal Biological Paradigm for Architectural
Design’, the currently prevailing biological paradigm is taken
to its most literal extreme in an inquiry into the
consequences of understanding architectures as living entities
and the potential benefits of applying life criteria to
architecture. Here, Hensel examines recent advances in
6
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Laser-cut model scale 1/75 of the Jyväskylä Music and Art Centre by OCEAN
NORTH, as discussed in ‘Differentiation and Performance’ (see page 60).
7