BiOrganic Design: A New Method for Architecture and the City

Abstract

In recent times many architects have proclaimed a new design philosophy based on complex-systems science, in opposition to conventional analytical methodology, or reductionism, and non-linear processes including computer aided design. Some claim that with the support of computers, entire new forms of design have become possible, while others believe that computers have even modified the creative processes and the design theory. In this sense, architects are involved in scientific investigations of artificial life, genetic algorithms and neural network programs. Artificial Intelligence, which supports the development of digital systems, both those produced for self-generated architectures as well as those for drawing topological transformation in Euclidean space, is evolving quickly. The use of digital systems for animation, on which programs such as ALIAS and MAYA are based, have had a liberating and cathartic effect enabling architects to draw and control unusual shapes with high levels of complexity.

First published as: Alessandra Capanna , “BiOrganic Design. A New Method for Architecture and the City”. Pp. 11–20 in Nexus VI: Architecture and Mathematics, Sylvie Duvernoy and Orietta Pedemonte, eds. Turin: Kim Williams Books, 2006.