Living Morphologies

Living Morphologies is a creative project in the field of algorithmic design: specifically the implementation of agent-based design strategies within architecture. The research relates directly to architectural design methodologies, specifically typology and the generative diagram. The project demonstrates the potential of algorithmic design strategies to shift architectural techniques of production away from graphic systems of representation towards active models of spatial organization.

The research draws on the computational traditions of Nicholas Negroponte’s MIT Media Lab and John Frazer’s work at the Architectural Association while differentiating itself from much current work aligned to agent-based methodologies. In such work, algorithms are invariably borrowed from other disciplines, notably Craig Reynold’s seminal crowding and flocking rules of locomotion, upon which architectural meaning is mapped. Invariably in such work, the focus is on the formal qualities of the trajectories resulting from agent-to-agent interaction versus any specific principles of spatial organization, thus rejecting typological diagramming. Living Morphologies reverse engineers the organizational logics of Le Corbusier’s canonical housing diagram-the ‘skip-stop’most famously implemented in his 1952 project Unite d’Habitation-before deploying it through a distributed agent-based design model. Empowered through computation, the formational parameters of Corbusier’s diagram can be tuned and evolved towards more differentiated outcomes thus expanding the singular configuration of the originating project. The project is presented in the form of a large 3D-print.