Form Follows Structure: Biomimetic Emergent Models of Architectural Production

“If you want to make a living flower you do not build it physically withtweezers, cell by cell; you grow it from seed. If you want to design anew flower, you will design the seed and let it grow. The seeds of theenvironment are pattern languages” — Christopher Alexander, 1970Recent evolution of architectural materials and fabrication technologies hascreated an interesting culture of multiplicity where methods of assembly areincessantly challenged by the invasive use of computer-aided design and manufacturing(CAD/CAM). This pervasive development has not only created newgenerative outcomes but it has also produced new material processes. Thus,emerging materials, renewable energy, and ecological design have created anappealing material culture in which materials and their methods are revaluatingour inherited notion of architectural material significance.What regulates this new framework of complexity? This paper will try to answerthe originating question by looking at the concept of emergence and how itmight relate to new modes of modularization or architectural production. Ideally,a material process articulated around the Deluzian idea of difference andrepetition should be based on the recognition of multiple formal variations;consequently, form ought to be integrated with structure and material to allowfor a more pragmatic functionality of its symbiotic apparatus. The ultimatescope of form generative processes is to provide guidelines for fabrication,which in this paper are generated by looking at examples of self-organizingstructures characterized by natural apparatuses from which their performance(material) emerges.Considering that biological materials are widely self-assembled and rapidlyself-generating, this paper begins by analyzing the importance of biomimeticapproaches to the production of new speculative methodologies of assembly inorder to understand how certain organisms or biological forms organize themselves.This framework also allows for a deeper understanding of organizedcomplexity through material pattern recognition methods. Yet, those patternsare not just another architectural formalization of nature, thus reducible topure aesthetic, but instead they propose a more accurate study of those biologicalmodels based on the recognition of reciprocal elements of structureand form. Structures and their material expression have indeed the effect ofemphasizing shape. In order to generate the final premises of this researchpaper, I will look into the work of Frei Otto, emphasizing his attention for thosestructural and material processes characterized by form finding through biologicalanalogues. Indeed, if you want to design a new flower, you will have todesign its seed first. Thus, understanding the new emergent patterns of materialpractice is what we need to do to avoid a regimental return to architecturalproduction as we know it.

Volume Editors
John Quale, Rashida Ng & Ryan E. Smith

ISBN
978-0-935502-85-5