Natural structures exhibit differentiation and local adaptation of their geometric, physical and chemical properties and, thus, employ principles of morphology that to this day are mostly unknown to architecture.
With the advent of computational design techniques, digital simulation and fabrication processes as well as current developments in material science, the preconditions for a meaningful translation into architecture of the relationships between form and function in natural systems are better today than ever before. After the investigations undertaken in the Performative Morphology I Studio (WS 10/11) researching the morphology of sea urchins (echinoids) and its successful translation into a built structure, i.e. the ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2011, this coming fall and winter semester will focus on invertebrates (mollusks), such as snails and mussels, and arthropods.
The analysis of the biological examples will be performed in collaboration with biology students of Tübingen university. The goal is to understand the basic principles of structural morphology and to translate these into novel constructional and spatial structures for architecture. Emphasis will be placed on the development of integrative computational processes of form generation that represent the parameters of biological morphology as well as those of robotic fabrication. These computational processes and construction systems will be developed, experimented with and put to the test during the course of a design project for a new research pavilion.
Similar to the two previous years, we’re aiming at a realization of the most successful design project on the university campus in the following spring and summer semester.
Prerequisite: participation at the complementary seminar „Integrative Computational Design & Robotic Fabrication“.
Submission deadline: end of WS 2011/12