Morphogenesis literally means the beginning of the shape, usually refers to the biological development of an organism, but it has also been a long source of inspiration for computer-based designs. The term “emergence” derives from system theory, where it defines properties of a system which cannot be derived from the sum of its parts - a notion often associated with complexity theory, to the study of nonlinear behaviours and to self organising systems. Michael Hensel, Achim Menges and Michael Weinstock are keen to point out the difference between emergent properties in life and computation as they apply the principles of self organisation to buildings as systems, or even eco systems. Menges applies the theories of self organising systems to structural design, form finding and research on physical materials. The term he often uses in this context is performative, an apparent conflation of form and performance, has been largely adopted by the design community and is still in use.
Menges’s theory and his term performativeness is the quality of material systems that perform through deformation, or which visibly deform to self organise and resist new external forces. These materials can deform under stress and will so they must be carefully calculated.
No comments:
Post a Comment