IMMANENCE CONCEPTUALIZED ARCHITECTURES & CHAOS

IMMANENCE CONCEPTUALIZED ARCHITECTURES & CHAOS

Mario Alberto Benavides Bermúdez

Research work for the

OFFICIAL MASTER ON BIODIGITAL ARCHITECTURE Director: Prof. Alberto T. Estévez PhD.

l’Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura – ESARQ Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

Barcelona, Spain December 2009

To my mother.

IMMANENCE CONCEPTUALIZED ARCHITECTURES & CHAOS MARIO ALBERTO BENAVIDES BERMÚDEZ

RESEARCH WORK FOR THE OFFICIAL MASTER ON BIODIGITAL ARCHITECTURE

DIRECTOR: PROF. ALBERTO T. ESTÉVEZ PhD. L’ESCOLA TÈCNICA SUPERIOR D’ARQUITECTURA – ESARQ

UNIVERSITAT INTERNACIONAL DE CATALUNYA BARCELONA, SPAIN ‐ DECEMBER 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................1

Immanence and Concept ................................................................ 2

A “brief” introduction to current affairs ......................................... 4

BIOMIMETICS ................................................................................ 16

Studio 1 – Nature conceptualized Architectures .......................... 17

Studio description...................................................................... 17

Exercise I – Intertwined Tower.................................................. 17

Exercise II – Trabecular Tower................................................... 28

Exercise III – A skin proposal ..................................................... 34

Concluding Notes....................................................................... 37

Studio 2 – Floral Obsession ........................................................... 38


Exercise – A Butterfly House ..................................................... 40


GENETIC ARCHITECTURE ........................................................... 49

Studio 3 – Coded Architectures..................................................... 51


Exercise – A museum: In itself, for itself and for others ........... 52


A SEARCH FOR MEANING .......................................................... 70

Chaos ............................................................................................. 70

An approach to chaos.................................................................... 84

CONCLUSIONS........................................................................... 92

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................... 97

APENDIX I..................................................................................... 100

INTRODUCTION 1

INTRODUCTION

The objective of the present research work is to fulfill the

requirements to obtain the Official Master’s degree in Biodigital

Architecture from l’Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura ESARQ

from the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya UIC. It presents,

develops, investigates and further analyzes the design projects

elaborated and possible implications of such design strategies. It is

structured in 5 main chapters comprising a general and specific

introduction, the presentation of the design projects in

chronological order, a critical analysis of concerns emanating from

the studios and further research on studio and other related

topics.

The introduction states the objective of this research work, briefly

introduces each of the following chapters and their general

outline, establishes a framework of reference that will help in

grasping the outset of it and finally highlights current affairs as

seen from the perspective of the lectures on the master’s studio

as well as further research inspired by the topics analyzed or

introduced during lectures.

The chapter denominated Biomimetics encompasses two studios

related to a mainly biomimetic approach to morphogenesis, each

with its own particularities. The first studio approach to

biomimicry is more scientific, relying on bibliographical research,

even scientific research as may be needed, with the purpose of

obtaining a morphological and structural understanding of natural

forms and their functioning. The second studio’s approach Is

based on a topological study of nature, which implies spatial

conditions and relations as well as the whole interaction between

them.

Understanding genetics as code and specific instructions,

detached from its biological implications, the chapter designated

Genetic Architecture explores the possibilities of morphogenetic

architectural conception, with parameterized self replication and

INTRODUCTION 2

growth through simple rules of engagement such as cellular

automata which may generate complexity from simple rules.

Finally the chapter named A search for meaning analyzes the

possible implications of the knowledge acquired in addition to

complementary research on relevant topics and elaborates a

frame with proposed links for a comprehensive approach to

architecture.

The Conclusion reflects on issues pertaining to the entirety of the

topics covered in the book and analyzes their implications finally

suggesting further research that may be carried out in the future.

Immanence and Concept

All the topics discussed in the master’s program represent a

distinct point of view from where each individual instructor

structures his outlook and analysis for the creation of their own

concepts directly related to the predicament of their own theory

on architecture through the interrelation of this concepts and the

whole that they create when combined together and that allows

for their communication and expression. As a departure point, a

frame of reference to understand the wholeness of these points of

view, the author will make use of Gilles Deleuze and Félix

Guattari’s (1993) account for immanence and concept. Although

philosophy’s purpose is not to communicate, as put forth by

Deleuze, as means to its ends, it must create concepts for these

actions or passions. Even though the author perceives a certain

skepticism from Deleuze in order to define philosophy, since such

definition may box it in what could be a narrow cell that does not

reflect the true nature of it, never the less, without speculating

any further on the motives, said definition can be extracted as

follows:

Philosophy is the art of forming, inventing, and fabricating concepts.

But the answer not only had to take note of the question, it had to

determine its moment, its occasion and circumstances, its

landscapes and personae, its conditions and unknowns. We will see

IMMANENCE AND CONCEPT 3

that concepts need conceptual personae [personnages conceptuels]

that play a part in their definition. Friend is one such persona that is

even said to reveal the Greek origin of Philo‐sophy: Other

civilizations had sages, but the Greeks introduce these “friends” who

are not just modest sages. The Greeks might seem to have

confirmed the death of the sage and have replaced him with

philosophers‐ these friends of wisdom, those who seek wisdom do

not formally possess it. But the difference between the sage and the

philosopher would not be merely one of degree, as on a scale: the

old oriental sage thinks, perhaps, in Figures, whereas the

philosopher invents and thinks the Concept (Deleuze, 1993 p.8).

Deleuze quotes Nietzsche on saying that, “Philosophers must no

longer accept concepts as a gift, not merely purify and polish

them, but first make and create them, present them and make

them convincing. Hitherto one has generally trusted one’s

concepts as if they were a wonderful dowry from some sort of

wonderland” (p.11), which indicates that nothing can be known

through concepts, unless they are created in a context specific to

them, as Deleuze declares, “a plane that gives them an

autonomous existence” (p.13).

Deleuze, additionally, explains that a concept is a multiplicity of

components and is defined by them, but it must also be noted that

not all multiplicities of components are concepts. Concepts are

connected to specific problems, and their existence would be

meaningless without such connection. Therefore, a concept is a

whole because it encompasses all of its components, but a

fragmentary whole, with an irregular contour. Thus the idea of a

concept is found as a matter of articulation.

Philosophical concepts are fragments with irregular edges that are

far from being pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that interconnect nicely,

nevertheless, there is coherence among them, since the

philosophy that creates them, does so by introducing a powerful

whole which is unfragmented and includes all the concepts in the

same plane of consistency which is defined by Deleuze as the

“plane of immanence” (p.39), this plane, must not be confused

INTRODUCTION 4

with as a concept, or concept of all concepts, it is rather a plane

that is populated by concepts and creates the contextual relations

between them. As it has already been argued, philosophy begins

with the creation of concepts, with this in mind, Deleuze

emphasizes that a plane of immanence has to be understood as

pre‐philosophical since concepts do not relate to it as they would

to other concepts, but to a non conceptual understanding.

Concepts are concrete dispositions as parts of a machinery, absolute

formeless fragmentary volumes, while the plane is limitless and

shapeless, not a surface or a volume. Concepts are events, while the

plane is the horizon, independent from the observer, concepts

populate the plane, while it remains indivisible, though it has no

more regions than those populated by concepts in such a way that

the contact among concepts is guaranteed (p.42).

As will become evident through this work, each approach to

architecture although there are many parallelisms, represents a

distinct plane of architectural immanence1 with its own concepts,

some of which will be borrowed from one approach to another,

but what has to be kept in mind is that the interpretation of the

concept is first and foremost related to the architectural plane of

immanence in which it is acting.

A “brief” introduction to current affairs

Architectural design has always moved within the technological

possibilities that each era offered to the architect, in example, the

development of the roman arch allowed for greater spans that

until then were undreamed about, the exploration and therefore

the understanding of the arch later yielded a further development

which resulted in the pointed arch typical of gothic architecture,

this meant that less buttressing was required and therefore it

1 The plane of immanence described by Deleuze requires an independence of

the plane, while an architectural approach is already relative to architecture

itself, the term Plane of Architectural Immanence will be used to differentiate it

from Deleuze’s.

A “BRIEF” INTRODUCTION TO CURRENT AFFAIRS 5

again evolved architectural design, but was still bound by forces

acting under compression.

Without attempting to detract from the major significance of the

two examples mentioned before (and many others throughout the

history of architecture), the Industrial Revolution was of major

significance for architecture, where before the architect only had

at his disposal naturally available materials that had to be shaped

by hand, and very rudimentary metallurgy as well as glass work,

now industrial materials and in general the steam engine meant

less human effort and cheaper production in series. With the

massive introduction of iron and later steel into architecture, now

the architect could think of members acting in tension.

Today, humanity finds itself immersed in the birth of a new

revolution, a revolution of information and data management

brought about by the introduction of readily available computers

with calculation capabilities never imagined before.

The new revolution, the Information Age along with some of its

progeny, nanotechnology and genetic manipulation, not because

they derive from it, but simply because their development would

have been unthinkable without the aid of computational power,

coupled with the ability to rapid prototype and fabricate custom

and individual pieces with the aid of such machines as CNC and 3D

printers, another progeny of the this age, are once again

presenting new possibilities to develop materials that will

supersede those industrially produced, this presents completely

new horizons and possibilities.

Branko Kolarevic (2005a) explains that the drafting instruments

designed under the Euclidean geometry tradition were

materialized as the straight edge and the compass witch allowed

the architect to more accurately draw what he could build, but

this also meant that he could only build what he could effectively

draw, mainly straight lines and circles. Ironically this direct relation

is still present today, which means that the architect is now

INTRODUCTION 6

limited by the capabilities of digital tools at his disposal, therefore,

the urgency for an architect to become fully versed on such tools

is evident.

As Kolarevic points out, the knowledge of production capabilities

and availability of digital fabrication equipment enables the

maximization of the benefits each particular equipment has to

offer, he further mentions that “the new digitally enabled

processes of production imply that the constructability in building

design becomes a direct function of computability” (2005a p.31).

To this end he mentions that the fact that NURBS surfaces can

accurately describe complex surfaces, also means that they can be

manufactured by means of CNC processes based on cutting,

subtractive, additive and formative fabrication.

These main strategies are briefly described as follows: Cutting, a

fairly straight forward process that can be achieved with, for

example, laser and water jet cutters, where the material is

subjected to erosion by the cutting element. The subtractive, as its

name implies, is achieved by removing material by mechanical,

chemical or electrical means, being the mechanical the most

common of all, it involves a milling router moving in both X and Y

directions, and in order to produce the third dimension, also the

ability to displace along the Z axis, this is known a three axis CNC

machine, since the milling router is fixed in the Z axis, it can only

produce elements in a topography like manner, by adding

rotational capabilities to the milling head, thus becoming a five

(A) Panel milling with CNC machine at ESARQ‐UIC

(B) and (C) finished panel

Source: Photos and panel by the author.

A. B. C.


axis CNC machine, it is then able to axially work on planes other

than that described by the X and Y axes. Additive fabrication

involves the gradual adding of layers of material either by gluing or

melting of each subsequent layer. Formative fabrication strategies

involve the deformation with steam or heat in order to mold the

material into its desired shape.

“In contemporary architectural design” writes Kolarevic (2005c),

“digital media is increasingly being used not as representational

tool for visualization but as a generative tool for the derivation of

form and its transformation” (p.13). Kolarevic draws attention to

new design strategies that are derived from a choice of

“generative computational method” (p.13) and articulating the

internal generative logic. On the subject, Alberto T. Estévez2

(2006a), notes.

[…] new materials, new tools, new processes, must give necessarily

new architectures… But, according to whose mouth it comes from,

this can be revolutionary or disastrous, exciting or despicable,

absolute freedom or its limitation. […] [Now humans have the

ability] to descend to a level of molecular action, affecting even the

genetic design, in the programming chains that later develop by

themselves, alive natural elements. This, in addition brings along a

possible direct comparison with the digital cybernetic world: the

design of programming chains that soon after develop unattended

into artificial computational elements (p.123)3.

Estévez (2006b) further foresees the development of a genetic

architecture by introducing living elements as part of the

architectural element in order to improve the physical and

structural functioning where genetic engineering can manipulate

chromosomes of living organisms not only to grow organic

materials that are suitable for construction, but are even

genetically programmed to construct a living house.

2 Alberto T. Estévez is currently Director and Coordinator of the Official Master’s

Degree on BioDigital Architecture at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya.

3 Translated by the author.

INTRODUCTION 8

His first steps in this direction are reflected in his Genetic

Barcelona Project, the aim of this project is to develop plants that

produce natural light through genetic treatment, introducing GFP

(Green Fluorescent Protein) in the DNA of lemon trees. This

project’s aim is geared towards introducing a source of alternative

urban lighting, where bio‐fluorescent trees will be planted along

the streets and parks. In favor of the project, Estévez points to the

fact that the city of Barcelona spends ten million Euros per year in

street lighting maintenance alone, without considering operating

costs.

In another article, Estévez (2006c) distinguishes between a literal

genetic architecture, with an ecologic/environmental approach,

created by living organisms, and a metaphoric genetic architecture

with a cybernetic/digital approach, produced by a computer

generated genetic code. He further mentions that the literal

approach still has a long way to go, further developments as far as

manipulating the genetic code are required in order to reorganize

genes responsible of growth, size, shape and if necessary,

strengthening of molecular structure. A metaphoric approach

implies working with calculations, mechanized construction

techniques that are commanded from a computer at the office,

and hence the ability to change or update projects without the

need to visit the construction site.

As Estévez explains, the literal approach to genetic architecture is

by force of its origin, necessarily biomorphic architecture, which

has been present throughout the history of architecture, in

support of this he mentions examples that include bone huts in

(A) and (C) Proposed use of genetically introduced GFP in trees. (B) left. Normal leaf, right. GFP leaf.

Source: Estévez (2009)

A. B. C.


Mezhirich, Ukraine from the year twenty thousand b.c. through

ancient Greece’s Καρυάτιςi to nineteen century’s Antoni Gaudí

and twentieth century’s Santiago Calatrava. He argues that even

though biomorphic architecture has always been present, it has

not been properly credited in reason that the modern architecture

of the world has been dominated by rationalist functionalism.

Estévez further adds that it was Gaudí who has shed the most light

over biomorphic architecture, referencing to his spirals an

helicoids proper of natural growth and although when thinking

about his architecture, what first comes to mind are his skull like

balconies, crosses that resemble a cypress fruit and even

legendary fish, he always projected in first instance on functional,

spatial, structural and constructive requirements. The dragon and

reptile shapes he projects are nothing more than a representation

of a deeper baggage that the human being carries along and Gaudí

introduces to his architecture with very explicit intentions,

reaching out to what is inherently a human need to dream.

In a more pragmatic aspect, Estévez points out that what is most

structural about Gaudí, is also what is most biomorphic, his ruled

surfaces, parabolic, hyperbolic and helicoidal shapes are

structurally sound, however, they have not been applied by any

other architect or engineer before him, only by nature.

On the subject, Mark Burry4 (2004) explains Gaudí’s work in his

final years concerning rational geometry and his extensive use of

the surfaces mentioned above, and intersections between them.

On this matter, he emphasizes that what was most characteristic

about Gaudí’s use of this surfaces, “was not their singularity of

use, but the implication of their interactions” (p.26), further he

explains some of these interactions as follows:

4 On March 2009 Mark Burry offered a lecture to the Master’s class on his

present work at the Sagrada Familia, where he currently works as a consultant.

INTRODUCTION 10

[…]The edges between surfaces are 3‐D curves of intersection, and

the rulings of the surface make it relatively easy to make perfect

joints. Where three such lines of intersection themselves intersect,

they form ‘triple points’. Each hyperboloid has nine variables that

govern its relationship to its neighbors: three coordinates that

determine the location of the collar; three degrees of rotation, one

about each of the three cardinal axes; and three constants that

define the elliptical ratio of the collar and the steepness of the

asymptote that defines the surface curvature. Clearly, the designer

has infinite choices available that will determine the suitability of

any particular combination. It is an extraordinary and sobering

thought that Gaudi possessed the conceptual ability to juggle with

all nine parameters (p.28).

Burry speculates that Gaudí on realizing that the temple would not

be finished in his lifetime, began work on plaster models that

would serve as reference to complete it, but unfortunately, very

few have survived the civil war, and most that did survive, have

done so in pieces. In light of this, he summons up all the

difficulties faced by the team in charge of completing the temple

as far as coinciding surface intersections when facing the task of

reconstructing such models, and therefore welcomes the arrival of

Computer Aided Design and Modeling to the project.

As far as the use of parametric design software, Burry (2005)

states that it is not so much the efficiency gained by their

introduction, as much as the “opportunities to experiment at both

a general or formal design level down to that of detailed design

resolution” (p.149). Parameters are more than merely numbers

relating to Cartesian geometry and the ability to modify the

geometry by changing numbers instead of completely redrawing

the whole geometry, since they include structural load resistance,

lighting conditions, acoustics and any others that can be

parameterized. Hence, in Burry’s opinion, “parametric design is

more accurately referred to as associative geometry” (p.149). He

mentions that the task of exploring the surviving models of the

Sagrada Familia to obtain data for the geometry and find

parameter values for the hyperbolic paraboloids in space, as well


as the nine parameters that rule the form the nave windows has

been greatly expedited and provided accurate results owing to the

introduction of parametric modeling.

“Digital technologies are changing architectural practices in ways

that few were able to anticipate just a decade ago” states Branko

Kolarevic (2005b p.3), in his view; the future is geared towards the

integration of conception and production in unprecedented ways

through the use of digital technology and the architectonic

possibilities rising from them. He recognizes that to a culture

trained in the “certainties of the Euclidean geometry” (p.6), the

emergence of curvilinear surfaces represents problems regarding

its “utterly esoteric and spatially difficult to comprehend” (p.6)

characteristics, and thus may regard them as just another fad, but

mentions that such surfaces have been present in our lives for

quite a few years by now, in the shapes of computers, shaving

razors and cars to name a few, and further explains that those

same curvilinear forms have been present in Baroque

architecture, since when “architects have been trying to go

beyond the Cartesian grid and the established norms of beauty

and proportion in architecture” (p.4).

Kolarevic (2005c) elucidates that the introduction of digital

modeling software allowed for the divergence from the Euclidean

geometry volumes represented in Cartesian space by the ability to

easily represent continuous curves and surfaces of the present use

of topological “rubber sheet” geometry that can be described by

NURBS, which can further be parametrically controlled, or by

manipulating its handles and control points.

The mathematical field of topology to which Kolarevic refers to, is

described as follows:

Topology is the mathematical study of the properties that are

preserved through deformations, twistings, and stretchings of

objects. Tearing, however, is not allowed. A circle is topologically

equivalent to an ellipse […] and a sphere is equivalent to an

ellipsoid.

INTRODUCTION 12

[…]One of the central ideas in topology is that spatial objects like

circles and spheres can be treated as objects in their own right, and

knowledge of objects is independent of how they are "represented"

or "embedded" in space. For example, the statement "if you remove

a point from a circle, you get a line segment" applies just as well to

the circle as to an ellipse, and even to tangled or knotted circles,

since the statement involves only topological properties.

Topology has to do with the study of spatial objects such as curves,

surfaces, the space we call our universe, the space‐time of general

relativity, fractals, knots, manifolds, phase spaces that are

encountered in physics, symmetry groups like the collection of ways

of rotating a top, etc.

Topology can be used to abstract the inherent connectivity of

objects while ignoring their detailed form. For example, the figures

above illustrate the connectivity of a number of topologically

distinct surfaces. In these figures, parallel edges drawn in solid join

one another with the orientation indicated with arrows, so corners

labeled with the same letter correspond to the same point, and

dashed lines show edges that remain free. The above figures

correspond to the disk (plane), Klein bottle, Möbius strip, real

projective plane, sphere, torus, and tube. The labels are often

omitted in such diagrams since they are implied by connection of

parallel lines with the orientations indicated by the arrows.

The figures illustrate the connectivity of a number of topologically distinct surfaces.

Source: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Topology.html


The "objects" of topology are often formally defined as topological

spaces. If two objects have the same topological properties, they are

said to be homeomorphic […].

Around 1900, Poincaré formulated a measure of an object's

topology, called homotopy […]. In particular, two mathematical

objects are said to be homotopic if one can be continuously

deformed into the other (Weisstein, Eric W.).

In Topological terms, the simplest one sided surface is known as a

Möbius band, which can be easily represented by joining the

edges of a paper slip with half a turn, it becomes a single sided

surface since, when following along one surface, the “other side”

will eventually be reached without crossing the edges. If stretched

or bent, it remains homeomorphic, while if both ends were joined

without the turn, resulting in a tube, would be a topologically

different shape with two sides (Polthier, Konrad. 2003).

A widely accepted misconception regarding topology must be

clarified, because it is often the case that topological surfaces are

represented as curved, it has become widely accepted as a

synonym of curved surfaces, when in fact, “topology is […] less

about spatial distinctions and more about spatial relations” (p.6)

as explained by Kolarevic (2005a).

A. Möbius strip stretched to half a Klein bottle.

B. Full Klein bottle revealing a Möbius strip.

C. Another configuration of a Klein bottle.

B. and C. are homotopic.

Source: http://plus.maths.org/issue26/features/mathart/index‐gifd.html

A. B. C.

INTRODUCTION 14

Topologyii is further explained as the “topographic study of a

particular place; specifically: the history of a region as indicated by

its topography” (Merriam Webster’s Dictionary). This definition

implies a factor of time, specifically the passage of it and the

signatures or scars it leaves behind. Which, when complemented

with the previously discussed mathematical concept of topology is

well suited for the study of a living or growing entity or the

animation of form, which is explained by Greg Lynn (1999) as

follows:

Animation is a term that differs from, but is often confused with

motion. While motion implies movement and action, animation

implies de evolution of a form and its shaping forces; it suggests

animalism, animism, growth, actuation, vitality and virtuality. […]

What makes animation so problematic for architects is that they

have maintained an ethics of statics in their discipline. Because of

their dedication to permanence, architecture is one of the last

modes of thought based on the inert. More than even its traditional

role of providing shelter, architects are expected to provide culture

with stasis. The desire of timelessness is intimately linked with

interests in formal purity and autonomy. Challenging these

assumptions by introducing architecture to models of organization

that are not inert will not threaten the essence of the discipline, but

will advance it. Just as the advancement of calculus drew upon the

historical mathematical developments that preceded it, so too will

an animate approach to architecture subsume traditional models of

statics into a more advanced system of dynamic organizations (p.9).

Lynn further explains that the shaping of form can be achieved by

the active environment in which it is situated, where the virtual

force of the environment contributes to its shape, where

“topology allows for not just the incorporation of a single moment

but rather a multiplicity of vectors, and therefore a multiplicity of

times in a single continuous surface” (p.10).

On the issue of parametrics, Kolarevic states that it provides the

designer with the ability to produce a series of possibilities by

replacing variables of a single schema, “thus replacing in the

process stable with variable, singularity with multiplicity” (2005c


p.17), where the parameters are declared rather than the final

shape and a change in parameter will result in a different

configuration of the same object, the different instances of the

same object can also be linked through ratios or equations that

determine the relationships among them, thus establishing a

complex hierarchy of interrelations, as in the case of Nicholas

Grimshaw’s Waterloo station, where the width and curvature are

not constant, nevertheless, with the application of parametric

design, it was possible to have the structure curve and widen

according to the parameters set by the site and the railroad track.

Design can flourish in our own era of emerging technological,

biological, and environmental possibilities compatible in a sense of

experimental, aesthetic potential. In the past, such extrapolated

forms could not be realized, they would be impossible to

structurally draw, engineer or build. Yet, now they can be drawn,

they can be engeneered, and with enough money, they can be

manufactured. So today, designers can incorporate ideas of

technical innovation and material development into current

practice and understand the digital and computational systems

needed to produce them (Dollens 2006).

BIOMIMETICS 16

BIOMIMETICS

A Biomimetic process, unlike merely copying forms from nature,

involves a deeper awareness and understanding of what goes on

in natural processes. Janine Benius (Benius 2005) defines

Biomimicry, as “learning an idea from nature and then applying

it”, in regards to it, she mentions that humans are able to find

solutions to their problems by learning from nature, where, as she

points out, “there are 3.8 billion years of research and

development and 10‐30 million species with well adapted

solutions”. She further mentions that it is not about a slavish

mimicking, but rather taking the design principles, and learning

from them. This includes the manufacturing of biomaterials,

biomechanics and biological single species systems such as

schools, herds or swarms, and multispecies ensembles. Finally she

concludes that the importance of these solutions is that they are

solved in context, the earth, and that they are being carried out

without producing any leftovers or toxic residue.

In the context of architecture, it studies the structures of vegetal,

animal entities, and in general natural forces to mimic their

composition and form in the creation of form and the production

of new materials by studying aspects related to structure,

branching, surface curvature, translucency, to name a few.

A visual approach to biomimentics, as Dennis Dollens (2006)

describes, is where:

one can take an object from nature; a shell, a bone, a plant, a flower,

a leaf and start looking at it and investigating it as a source for

design properties an then take those observations and draw them,

or scan them, or section them under a microscope, and comprehend

them as discrete elements that may have application to design work

and thought (p.146).

Very much the same way that Paxton’s Crystal Palace was

inspired.

STUDIO 1 – NATURE CONCEPTUALIZED ARCHITECTURES 17

Further, Dollens explains his own approach to digital‐biomimetic

exploration, where he uses software with the capability of

producing forms based on botanical algorithms that “impart to the

digital, 3D design, the essence of a growing plant”, where the

software’s growth parameters can be experimented with.

The algorithmic nature of this approach lends itself to the

exploration of nature’s methods as far as air flow, shade and light

patterns as part of building design that are “digitally grown for

architecture with botanic properties” (p.147).

The biomimetic approach to architecture can potentially yield

more advanced buildings in terms of esthetical, material and

mechanical implications as far as sustainable technologies and the

environment is concerned.

Studio 1 – Nature conceptualized Architectures

Studio description

Led by Dr. Alberto T. Estévez , the aim of this studio is to study and

use biomimetic principles for its conception and development of

architecture, the task is began by selecting an organic entity (or

part of one), to be thoroughly researched and investigated, once

said entity is adequately understood (considering time constraints,

studio resources and last but not least, the endlessness of

components that integrate these beings), a proposal for a

skyscraper using morphological principles derived from the subject

of choice, is to be presented.

Exercise I – Intertwined Tower

The team for this exercise is composed by Master studio

members: Christian Raun and the author. After thorough

examination of different possibilities, the Euplectella sponge, also

known as Glass sponge is designated as the subject of choice.

BIOMIMETICS 18

Subject study

Sponges or poriferans belong to the Porifera phylumiii. They are

among the oldest multi‐cellular animals (metazoan), these

organisms are permanently attached by the base to the sea floor,

With more tan 6000 species, their habitat ranges from tropical to

polar regions, seawater as well as sweet water. Their bodies

consist of a thin outer layer of cells and middle mass of cells, the

inner part of the body is hollow and is held up by mesohyl, a

substance mainly composed of collagen. The body’s inner and

outer parts are connected by channels called Ostia and an

aperture on top of the body is called osculum.

They don’t have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems, instead

relay on a constant water flow, in to their bodies through the ostia

and out through the osculum in order to obtain oxygen, food and

eliminate waste material and carbon dioxide, despite the

simplicity of their body, are extremely efficient at obtaining

bacteria and other food particles from the surrounding water.

Even though Euplectella (Hexactinellid) belongs to the same

phylum, it presents a distinctive variation; it has a scaffolding like

skeleton from where the living tissue is suspended, a skeleton is

Euplectella sponge displaying its characteristic scaffolding like skeleton from where the living tissue is suspended.

Source: images.nbii.gov


the result of a mineralization process in living organisms resulting

in a structure that shapes and holds the organism.

As explained by John D. Currey (2005). Mineralization takes place

in the body of most animals, usually with the purpose of skeletal

support. A variety of minerals serves this purpose, the most

common of which are: calcium carbonate, silica and carbon

phosphate. One feature is common to all bio‐mineralized

structures; they are highly hierarchical, meaning that the structure

is different at different scales.

Basic anatomy of the Euplectella sponge

Source: siera104.com/bio/porifera.html

BIOMIMETICS 20

The deep sea sponge, Euplectella has a cylindrical skeleton with

several levels of structural hierarchy. At the smallest level

(nanometer scale), Silica particles arranged around an organic

axial filament, at the following level, Spicules are formed by

alternating layers of organic material and silica, next, Larger

spicules are formed by binding the smaller spicules together,

following that, a grid in circumferential, longitudinal and diagonal

is formed by arranging the larger spicules, producing a stable

structure to all forms of loading, finally, the grid is wrapped by

helical surface ridges (Currey, 2005).

Johana Aizenberg, et al (2005) further explains that the spicules

are embedded in a layered silica matrix, cemented by hydrated

silica and that such organisms have evolved the means to

reinforce mineral materials that are inherently brittle into mineral

(A) Entire skeleton Scale bar, (SB) 1 cm. (B) Lattice of vertical and horizontal struts with diagonal elements. Orthogonal ridges are indicated by arrows. SB 5 mm. (C) Strut composed of bundled multiple spicules SB 100 μm. (D) Fractured single beam revealing its ceramic fiber‐composite structure. SB 20 μm. (E) Junction area showing that the lattice is cemented with laminated silica layers. SB 25 μm. (F) Cross section through one of the spicular struts. SB 10 μm. (G) Typical spicule. SB 5 μm. (H) fractured spicule, revealing an organic interlayer. SB 1 μm. (I) Biosilica surface. SB 500 nm.

Source Aizenberg et al (2005)

(A) Consolidated silica nanoparticles deposited around a preformed organic axial filament. (B) Lamellar structure of spicule made of alternating organic and silica layers. (C) Bundling of spicules. (D) The node structure. (E) Cementation of nodes and spicules in the skeletal lattice with layered silica matrix. Fiber‐reinforced composite of an individual beam in the strut. (F) Surface ridges protect against ovalization of the skeleton tube. (G) Flexural anchoring of the rigid cage into the soft sediments of the sea floor.

Source: Aizenberg et al. (2005)


and organic arrangements by layers that result in exceptional

toughness and flexibility compared to the material alone.

As far as the actual process of formation of the skeletal framework

of D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1992) describes the process by

which these intricate frameworks are built, arguing that the angles

at which these spicules align themselves is not consistent with the

crystallization patterns when the crystal is permitted to grow

unrestrained, he speculates that the cells of the sponge may act as

a mold trough witch the crystallization process takes place.

Although he confesses his (and others) inability to fully explain the

patterns, he offers a plausible theory by which the cells or vesicles

by which they are conformed, instead of being arranged in a

“closest packing”, are arranged in a “linear series”, and out of this

arrangement we get a pattern of squares, cubes and

parallelepipeda.

James C. Weaver et al. (2007) explains that the lattice is principally

composed of a “series of overlapping vertical, horizontal and

diagonal fibrous struts. Forming a basic square lattice reinforced

with diagonal braces” (p.98). The struts in the vertical and

horizontal directions are more ordered than the diagonal ones,

which to him suggest “fundamental differences in the origins of

ordering and their dependencies on the underlying constituent

spicule geometry” (p.98). He found that these skeletal elements

are non‐planar in nature which enables the creation of a circular

shape without introducing stress to its structure. The horizontal

spicules overlap those of the neighboring spicule to assemble ring

like structures, which combined with another ring, creates a

composite overlapping structure.

The combined rings retain the ability to move independently from

each other. Although a fused structure would result in a stiffer

structure, the independence of the rings allows the structure to

“dissipate energy during substantial loading events” (p.98).

BIOMIMETICS 22

These rings are in turn connected to other rings above and below,

and as Weaver points out, “construction of the lattice from

cruciform spicules also facilitates growth of the skeletal diameter

without changing the number of horizontal struts” (p.98).

As far as the general arrangement of struts, Weaver (2007)

describes it in the following manner:

The relative locations of these two supporting strut systems are

important for further stabilization of the underlying quadrate lattice.

In this arrangement, the vertical spicular struts are predominantly

arranged on the exterior lattice surface, while the horizontal ones

line the interior, with the cruciform spicule grids sandwiched

between the two. This design strategy increases the toughness of

the framework by providing uniform support to the underlying

structural framework (p. 100).

He further points out that the square grid is developed during the

flexible phase of growth, where the ability to deform the lattice,

allows for lateral expansion. The diagonal spicule bundles and the

diagonal ridge are only developed as the skeletal lattice matures,

in order to provide it with the necessary rigidity.

While the vertical and horizontal struts follow nearly orthogonal

patterns, the diagonal struts present a less ordered growth path,

nevertheless, they do follow the general path set by the horizontal

Spicules from Euplectella aspergillum (A, B, C), show the non‐planar nature of these skeletal elements. Ring‐like structures (D) by overlap of the horizontal spicule rays. Two separate lattices (shown in blue and yellow) are juxtaposed to form the basic structural unit shown in (E). and repeated in (F). Horizontal and vertical offset of the two structures, all of the vertical elements become positioned on the exterior of the lattice and the horizontal components on the interior (G). Native skeletal lattice shown in normal (H) and color‐enhanced (I) versions. Scale bars: A: 5 mm; B: 500 lm; C: 1 cm; D: 5 mm; E: 5 mm; F: 1 cm; G: 2.5 mm; H: 1 mm; I: 1 mm.

Source: Weaver (2007)


and vertical components, and produce a pattern of open and

closed cells, which determines where the ostia will be located.

The diagonal ridge contributes to the stability of the structure by

preventing the ovalization of the cylinder, as well as failure due to

torsion.

The Project

The “Intertwined Tower” is conceived as a structural analogy to

the Euplectella sponge, where the structural integrity of the

building is inspired in the intricate pattern of silica crystal strut

arrangement present in the Euplectella’s skeleton and the

continuous water flow through the body of the sponge also

inspired a passive ventilation system, which although is not

expected to cover the full requirements of the whole building, it is

nonetheless expected to reduce the load on HVAC systems of the

building. The overall shape of the building topologically

Vertical, horizontal, and diagonal reinforcement of the cylindrical skeletal lattice. which form an alternating open and closed cell structure (A). The horizontal supporting struts are predominantly positioned on the interior lattice surface and the vertical components are on the exterior (B). Each strut is in turn composed of a series of individual spicules bundled together (C). A comparative view of a similar region of the native skeleton showing the semi‐disordered nature of the diagonal components (D).

Source: Weaver (2007)

BIOMIMETICS 24

corresponds to that of the Euplectella sponge, but has been

deformed in two ways, instead of having circular floor plans, they

are oval shaped, with the longest axis oriented along the path of

predominant winds in Barcelona and has been squeezed in the

middle and enlarged on top in order to create more usable floor

space in the upper levels where the panorama is more desirable.


A. Each external structural level is set up in a polygonal manner to create a level unit.

B. The units are offset and rotated in order to stiffen the external structure.

C. Lateral stability is provided by the intertwining diagonal members.

D. The intertwined members are cross‐braced to provide the necessary rigidity in all directions.

E. Slabs have inner cavities to accommodate vertical systems and serve to take horizontal loads.

F. Internal structure, vertical circulation and mechanical systems are arranged along the central cavities.

G. The member of the outer structure are arranged in vertical curvilinear and horizontal ovoid elements.

H. Outside the horizontal and vertical struts is the diagonal spiraling strut system.

Source: Studio group project.

E. G.

F. H.

B. D.

A. C.

BIOMIMETICS 26

A.

D.

E.

C.B.


F.

G.

A. Typical sponge water flow scheme, where higher water speeds on top create a suction effect on the osculum.

B. Instead of intaking fresh air through the skin, it is conducted under water for cooling purposes.

C. The top is cup shaped to create a vacuum effect that extracts used air.

D. Wind patterns prevalent in Barcelona as foundation for deformation.

E. Topological deformations.

F. Exterior perspective, where structural elements embrace the building.

G. Interior perspective depicting the interaction between horixontal, vertical and diagonal elements.

Sources:

A, B, C, E, F and G. Studio group project.

D. Weather tool trial software.

BIOMIMETICS 28

Exercise II – Trabecular Tower

This exercise, carried out by BioDigital Master Studio members

Effimia Giannopoulu and the author. After an expedited

examination of subjects of study, the team selected trabecular

bone as the subject due to its strength and yet allowing for intra

tabecular space with amazing spatial qualities.

Subject study

In its interior, bone tissue is arranged in a network of spicules

called trabeculaeiv, and enclose spaces filled with blood vessels

and marrow. Trabeculae grow in a complex series of cross‐braced

struts arranged in a continuous order so as to provide maximal

rigidity with the least amount of material. Also known as

Cancellous Bone and spongy bone, it is one of the two osseous

tissues that compose bones. (Encyclopædia Britanica)

As Aizenberg (2005) writes, bone is an example of hierarchically

assembled fibrous material. It strength depends on different

structural levels working together, from the molecular level,

composed of calcium phosphate crystals to the organic framework

where collagen fibrils interact with the mineral components. She

further explains that in such structures, it is usually the stiff

mineral components that take the bulk of the load. While the

organic layers provide thoughness, prevent the spread of cracks to

the interior of the structure and provide the capacity for recovery

after deformation.

According to Currey (2005), mammalian bones display a

characteristic hierarchy, where at a nanometer level, carbonate

Trabecular tissue of human bone and lattice shaped spicules that interconnect in order to create the tissue itself.

Sources:

A. and B. archive.nyu.edu

C. www.phy.bris.ac.uk 01

A. B. C.


apatitev crystals are embedded and surround a fibrous protein

collagen, then this fibers are bonded to one another, and at the

next level, they come together to form lamealle with various

patterns to finally produce bone tissue. Solid to the naked eye,

compact bone is modified in some places to form trabecular bone

consisting of several struts which are arranged in the direction of

the loads on the bone.

As far as the arrangement of the trabecula themselves, Thompson

(1992) describes how on a longitudinal section of a femur, the

trabeculae are aligned in curved lines spanning from the head to

the shaft of the bone and the linear patterns created by the

trabecula are in turn intersected almost orthogonally by a

secondary pattern, the primary pattern closely resembles the

patterns of a diagram of lines of stress.

Main alignment of trabecula following natural stress lines in the femoral bone, transverse (secondary) alignment can also be noticed perpendicular to the primary alignment.

Source: liveonearth.livejournal.com

& www.ezo.wur.nl

A. B.

BIOMIMETICS 30

The Project

The interest in the trabecular intra‐space arises from the

realization of how trabeculas arrange themselves where additional

support for the bone is required, this arrangement is emulated by

firstly analyzing a cross sectional cut of trabecular tissue and

reproducing a polygonal arrangement that closely resembles that

of the tissue, since they tend to arrange themselves along the lines

of stress, a second polygonal disposition is generated in a manner

that some of the points in the first arrangement coincide with

those on the second one, ant these arrangements are

superimposed and offset by a distance equivalent to half a

trabecula in the vertical direction. Since the arrangement on

transsectional direction tends to align trabecula in the main

direction of loads, a main pattern for the alignment of the

trabecula is determined along the coinciding points of the

polygonal arrangements and a secondary path is generated along

the non coinciding points, thus creating a half cycle in the

direction of growth, being the full cycle created by offsetting a

copy of the first polygonal arrangement by the full length of a

trabecula and joining the corresponding points.

Having defined the disposition of a full cycle or unit of growth, it is

repeated upward as many times as needed in order to have the

full height of the skyscraper. Being each unit parameterized not to

replicate the previous one, yet to coincide with its trabecular

support points.

It must be noted that following this procedure of arrangement for

the trabecula accomplishes the alignment of the vertical trabecula

as well, since with this approach, they all line up along the one

quarter and three quarter subdivision of the full cycle.


A. First and second polygonal arrangements with yellow dots depicting intersection points.

B. General volume of a full cycle over the polygonal grids.

C. Primary trabecular arrangement extruded vertically.

D. Secondary trabecular arrangement in the direction of the first polygonal grid.

E. Secondary trabecular arrangement in the direction of the first and second polygonal grids.

F. Bubbles generated in the in between space for the first polygonal grid.

G. Bubbles generated in the in between space for the first and second polygonal grids.

H. Bubbles are subtracted from the general volume.

I. Boolean subtraction volume along with main and secondary trabecular patterns.

J. A complete cycle to be instanced parametrically upwards.

Following page. Topological deformations on the “bubble” elements, and their recomposition.

Subsequent page. Full view and detailed close ups, where the animate characteristic of the element can be observed, with a very small rotation, and lighting, the character of space changes completely.

Source: Studio group project.

C.

B.A.

D.

E. F.

G. H.

I. J.

BIOMIMETICS 32

BIOMIMETICS 34

Exercise III – A skin proposal

This mini‐studio, directed by Dennis Dollens takes as a starting

point the finished skyscraper designed in the previous exercise

and researches the possibilities regarding the development of a

skin for it.

The objective mentioned above is accomplished by extracting

visual and structural information from nature, not in order to

replicate it, which, as Dollens (2006) writes “[…] the least desirable

outcome is for design to be fashioned to look like nature with

conventional materials, methods and attitudes. Such an approach,

merely making a building look like a natural form, clearly violates

the spirit behind biomimetics of looking to nature to learn”

(p.148), but to extract concepts in a way that the skin does not

look like that of a natural entity, but rather behaves like it in terms

of regulating, filtering environmental traits such as light, air or

pollution, recollection/repulsion of air moisture. The final

objective of such development is to formulate ways to facilitate

the attainment of a homeostaticvi state as a means to reduce

energy consumption and regulate the comfort zone among others.

Subject study

As Dollens points out, there are several ways to approach and

study biomimetics, to name a few: visual, structural, mechanical,

chemical and molecular. Each representing a study of a distinct

facet of the natural world.

(a) SEM image of the surface of a lotus leaf (b) a higher magnification with hierarchical structures clearly resolved. (c) A water drop on the surface of the lotus leaf attains a nearly spherical shape. (d) SEM image of the artificial laser‐structured silanized silicon surface and (e) higher magnification showing the dual length‐scale roughness. (f) A water drop on the structured surface.

Source: Barberoglou (2009)


The lotus leaf and its water repellency is taken as a subject of

study at first, in an attempt to develop a potential material that

would keep the surface clean permanently, on researching the

subject, it is realized that such effect is achieved by surfacing

materials at a nanometer scale (Barberoglou, Marios 2009), and

because of the scale implications, is not a suitable subject to

develop an architectural skin design. Nevertheless, on closer

observation of the structures present in both, natural and man

made materials that are water repellent, the surface structure of

said materials serves as an motivation to investigate alternative

uses that such surfaces could have on a larger architectural scale,

being that the main function of a building skin is that of controlling

the internal environment, the microscopic arrangement of the

lotus leaf surface renders possibilities of skin design that are

speculated to act as a noise barrier, and that properly laid out

could serve as passive noise and light filters.

The project

On abstracting the skin of the lotus leaf and then modeling of the

building’s skin, both on CAD and a physical foam model, it is

discovered that a building’s skin shaped in such manner effectively

acts as a light diffusion mechanism, when a direct, unidirectional

light is pointed to it, the model skin produces the following two

effects: (a) amazing non‐periodical light and shadow patterns. (b)

softer multidirectional light. It is hypothesized that these effects

are produced because the skin only allows a fraction of the direct

light to shine through, while the remainder of it bounces several

times off the semi‐parabolic negative space created by the prickles

in the skin before permeating it.

It is speculated that sound would behave in a similar way since, as

far as reflections is concerned, wave behavior of light and sound is

the same.

BIOMIMETICS 36

(A.) Foam model view from below, depicting light coming through. (B.) Foam model view of the prickles with light inside.

(C.) Shadow patterns produced when the model is populated along a surface. (D.) Shadow patterns created on the skin itself.

(E.) Interior face and surface interaction with the outside face. (F.) Section through the skin depicting the interconnection of surfaces

Source: Photographs and renderings by the author.

A. B.

C. D.

E. F.


Concluding Notes

It is adequate to close this studio with some ideas regarding scale

put forth by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1992), he states that

our conceptions of form must all be referred in terms of

magnitude and direction, he further explains, as Archimedes

himself did, that for similar bodies, the surface area increases as

the square, and volume as the cube of their linear magnitude. The

proportions in this ratio directly affect the forces acting on the

body. Thompson further explains that there are discontinuities in

matters of scale, where different forces tend to predominate, and

therefore, different conditions prevail. The effect of scale depends

not only on the entity itself, but in relation to the whole

environment in which it is found.

Hence, since some physical forces act directly on the surface of

the body, while others, like gravity act on every single particle, it is

deduced that if structures found in a microscopic level are meant

to be used in architectural scale, attention must be paid to the

effects that the volume to surface area ratio, as well as the

predominance of certain physical forces at different scales will

have on such structures. This can be accomplished in a variety of

ways, to mention a few: finding new arrangements of a given type

of material in a way that will compensate the additional loads

created by a larger scale, the use of different materials with

physical properties that will enable them to cope with the

additional loads implied by the scale, or by a combination of both

of these (or other) strategies in order to achieve a mixed

approach.

It is to be noted that biomimetic and biomorphic research, just like

any other research, is a multidimensional task, and such things as

happy accidents do happen, since on the case of the skin design, a

completely different function was derived from a morphology with

very specific purposes, and with this in mind the author points out

BIOMIMETICS 38

that even though a solution to a particular problem may be

investigated, while researching, one must remain open and alert

to distinct possibilities that may open up along the way, since one

might stumble on a solution to a completely different problem or

an unforeseen way to solve the current problem.

Studio 2 – Floral Obsession

Studio description

Directed by Prof. Matías Del Campo and Sandra Manninger, the

aim of the “Floral Obsession” studio is to explore opportunities

and morphologies present in floral bodies as a departure point for

architectural design. Spatial conditions are to be explored and

speculated upon deriving them from inherent qualities in a

blooming flower. Traits ranging from their topological qualities to

the distribution of petals forming the entity of a flower are

examined for sensory and spatial experiences to be later

incorporated in an architectural project.

The studio undertakes the exploration of surface grammar,

possible in depth articulations of the surface, archetypes of

architectural conditions such as spatial differentiation, structure

and form.

In order to achieve this goal, the studio greatly relies on

computational design tools such as topological mesh modeling,

algorithm driven, and organic modeling computation5.

As a foundation for the studio, and the design of architectural

conditions, the following concepts are defined:

Inflorescence, as defined is the “is a group or cluster of flowers

arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a

complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the

shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is

5 Text summarized from the course description by Matías Del Campo.

STUDIO 2 – FLORAL OBSESSION 39

accordingly modified. The modifications can involve the length

and the nature of the internodes and the phyllotaxis, as well as

variations in the proportions, compressions, swellings, adnationsvii,

connationsviii and reduction of main and secondary axes”

(Encyclopædia Britanica).

Plication, refers to the creases in the body of a flower, which

provide additional rigidity to the plane of a petal, or as defined by

The Ollla Dictionary “folding in parallel folds”.

Venation, Refers to the arrangement of the veins, in this case in

leafs of a plant, or petals of a flower, there are mainly two types,

craspedodomus, where the veins stretch to the edges of the leaf

plane, and camptodromous, where veins almost reach the edge,

but on close proximity to it, they bend. The inner organization of

the veins can be described in one of the following three ways:

“Parallel ‐ veins are arranged parallel to one another from the

base to the apex, Pinnate ‐ veins move laterally from the midrib

throughout the blade, Palmate ‐ veins branch from the leaf base

throughout the blade just as fingers radiate from a hand” (Plant

Structures Lab). Floral venation is useful in studies of homologies

and in determining the origin of floral structures (Gustafsson,

1995).

Ornament, Usually a way to embellish what is subjected to it.

Since in the case of a flower, though it may be ornate, was not

consciously subjected to it, but rather became an adaptation of

nature, in this case, it may be regarded as the arrangement and

pattern distribution present in the whole or parts of the flower.

Chromatics, In this case, the floral pigmentation, or absence of it

in parts or the whole flower, usually as a result of particular

pigments present (or absent as the case may be) in the petal’s

tissue.

The above mentioned concepts are regarded as inherent qualities

of a floral entity.

BIOMIMETICS 40

Exercise – A Butterfly House

The butterfly house is intended to be a place where butterflies

live, and people visit, the usual logic for this kind of places is one

where the animals or insects are caged inside a locked space

which is crucial in order to keep them from escaping, but also in

these places, humans remain outside the cage, in order to have a

more interactive approach, it is intended to generate an inner

cage where people go through, and an outer cage where the

butterflies live. For this purpose, it must be understood as a

double layered green house for butterflies. Topologically speaking

a torus where the butterflies are inside and people go through the

opening6.

The studio is subdivided in two stages which, according to the final

objectives of the studio, will contribute concepts and ideas to

generate a milieuix (The use of milieu will be discussed on page

number 89 of this work, for the time being, the dictionary

definition will suffice), for the development of an architectural

project.

In order to carry out the studio, first a subject of study and one

inherent quality pertaining to it must be defined. A petunia of the

garden variety was chosen, and Venation as a quality was

selected, although it soon became evident that, contrary to

current architectural practice, where the structure, skin,

ornamentation are treated separately, in a flower, the inherent

qualities defined, tend have a very active team work, not only goal

oriented (the whole flower), but on a deeper level, they tend to

permanently interact with each other, and rely on each other.

Therefore, it is impossible to only study one of them without

referencing to the others permanently.

6 I can’t avoid noticing the biological implications this would have if the butterfly

house was a living organism, but in this case, the visitors bring life too the

organism, and in turn come out enriched by the experience.


First stage – a Top‐down approach

The study of the subject is both, by direct observation, and

analytic, some flowers were set aside to be dissected and thorn

apart in order to discover the intrinsic qualities of the flower,

while others were studied in their undisturbed state, in order not

to destroy the gestalt characteristics in terms of spatial, structural,

organizational and sensory opportunities.

This approach implies “breaking down a system to gain insight into

its compositional sub‐systems”. An overview of the system is

formulated, next the subsystems are refined in greater detail in as

many steps as deemed necessary, “until the entire specification is

reduced to base elements” (Encyclopædia Britanica).

A petunia is a trumpet shaped flower with partly joined petals, it

exhibits a radial symmetry divided in five sections. There is only

one flower per stem, therefore no inflorescence. The pistilx is

located deep inside the tubular part of the flower, with only the

tips showing through the wide end of the trumpet shape. The

calyxxi grows from two thirds to three quarters of the length of the

pistil and is composed of five partly joined leafs.

A general surface study of the flower indicates that the trumpet

can be separated into three main areas, the base of the trumpet,

with thick walls and almost no pigmentation. The middle of the

trumpet, with medium thickness walls and heavy pigmentation, to

the point where the bright red coloration of the flower darkens

almost to the point of blackness. Finally, the wide open end of the

trumpet, bright red in color with white borders on the tips of the

petals, although this part is most likely proportional in volume to

the other two, the thinness of its walls is such that the mouth of

the trumpet is eight to ten times larger in terms of surface.

A trans‐sectional study (cuts transverse to the main axis) of the

subject displays a triple layered base of the flower with the outer

layer composed of the calyx, the middle layer with the base of the

trumpet and the inner layer the pistil, here, a pentagonal

BIOMIMETICS 42

arrangement can be observed with five veins in each of the outer

and middle layers. In the next section, the outer layer becomes

completely detached, and the petal (trumpet) layer adopts a five

pointed star configuration, with the outer, concave bends, each

generated by a main vein running perpendicular to the section.

Further along the trumpet, the contour becomes pentagonal, and

the stamens detach themselves from the main veins, this last

section profile, continues for the length of what has previously

been defined as the middle of the trumpet, where the only

modifications are the gradual widening of the section and the

thinning of the main veins. Finally the open end of the trumpet is

where the gradual opening turns to a semi exponential opening

where halfway trough, the semi joined petals are split in five,

where the main veins run along the centre of each partition,

reaching the edge of the blade, creating a semi lobe with a white

edge.

A cross sectional analysis further reveals a vein arrangement

where all five main veins are always topologically parallel up to the

edge of the petal, while the secondary venation patterns are semi

parallel from the base, up to the middle, and although they

interconnect sporadically, they do so preserving the main

directionality of flow, as they reach the trumpet’s mouth, the

arrangement becomes branched and reticulated. A gradual

thinning of the flower walls can be observed along the evolution

of the flower.

Along the venation patterns, plication occurs as follows: in the

inner flower (base and middle trumpet), very soft along the main

A. Axially symmetrical organization.

B. Venation patterns.

C. Plication along major veins.

D. Lighting conditions along the flower’s axis.

Source: Photos by the author

A. B. C. D.


veins, here, the secondary venation patterns leave the surface

fairly undisturbed. As the venation emerges towards the outer

flower (trumpet mouth), the pleats along the major veins become

more apparent and emerge along the secondary pattern, the

pleats fold the wall material inward (towards the central axis of

the flower) thus producing lumps on the surface, and presumably

creating a stronger surface by corrugation.

Veins also determine the pigmentation of the flower, since at the

base there is almost no pigmentation, only along the main veins,

in the middle, where the walls begin to thin, and all the veins run

parallel and packed together, there is very heavy pigmentation

turning the flower’s color to almost black, and finally at the mouth

of the trumpet, pigmentation appears fairly well distributed,

allowing for a bright red to come out, being the thickness of the

veins the only factors influencing the translucency of the flower’s

wall.

The sensory and spatial conditions generated in the flower are

described, beginning this time from the mouth of the trumpet

inward, as an airy and luminous space with direct light, which

gradually transforms into a dark enclosed space and eventually is

luminous again, but in a very soft and diffused way, since the

direct light penetrates the un‐pigmented walls of the inner flower,

but are greatly softened and diffused, creating a whole new

environment inside the flower which is very tranquil and quiet.

In the growth patterns of the flower itself, one can observe a

development roughly separated in stages, where the calyx is a

completely closed and oval shaped body growing proportionally in

all directions. Once its final size is reached, the side opposite the

stem opens generating the final shape of the calyx with its five

leaves, from the concave side of it, the flower emerges. At this

point it is cylindrically shaped, with a rounded end, its growth is

oriented with the central axis of the flower, hence along the main

venation patterns. Subsequently, the mouth of the flower begins

to unfold, first the major veins unfold outward, with the

BIOMIMETICS 44

remainder of the petal shriveled and folded inward, overlapped by

the other semi‐petals in a clockwise direction (in all the cases

observed), when the major veins are completely deployed, the

semi‐petals, still folded inward, give a star like shape to the flower,

which, as they unfold, is later turned into an irregular circular

shape.

As a result of the complete analysis and of the spatial and

sensorial qualities of the flower, a parallel is drawn with gothic

architecture, as far as spaciousness, structural openness, bursting

with softened light and an immense feeling of quietude and

separation with the outside world. These characteristics are

deemed as desirable for the butterfly house and hence, along with

the potential of green spaces, and people/butterfly closeness, but

apartness are kept in mind.

Second stage – a Bottom‐up approach

A Bottom‐up approach involves the piecing together of small

systems into a grand system, this way, the small systems become

sub‐systems of an emergent system. This linking of sub‐systems

into larger ones may occur in several levels, until a top‐level

system emerges. This approach often resembles a “seed” model,

where from a very simple beginning, as a result of the continuous

A. Sainte Chapelle

B. Petunia

spaciousness, structural openness, bursting with softened light and an immense feeling of quietude and separation with the outside world

Source: Photos by the author

A. B.


interlinking of systems and sub‐systems eventually grows into

complexity and completeness (Encyclopædia Britanica).

Since a Bottom‐up approach is used, the morphological

exploration in terms of searching for the vocation of the

architecture, in other words what the architecture wants to be or

become, rather than imposing the willpower of the architect, was

set as an axiom of the design strategy. In this spirit, it must be

noted that the characteristics earlier deemed desirable for the

project, are not to be considered as impositions on the

architecture, but rather as potentialities of the architecture.

The exploration for the most basic subsystem is carried out with

the support of Computer Aided Design tools, several base forms

are explored by subjecting them to topological deformations. The

resulting three dimensional objects resulting from this exploration

are then organized by “families” with similar spatial properties.

Once the explored spatial properties yields an appropriate set of

alternatives, interaction of higher systems is further explored in

steps that lead to a top level system, always following the vocation

of each sub‐system.

The project

After the exploration of multiple base elements and the spatial

and connective qualities inherent to them along with the potential

topological deformations of such combinations, a tetrahedron is

selected as a base element, the shape is then associated with

other tetrahedra by extrusion of faces, generating higher systems

with a morphology unlike that of the base system. This process is

repeated several times to the point that further tetrahedral

extrusions would no longer result in a new system that could be

distinguishably different from the previous step, in such way that

there was no longer a connectivity vocation in that direction. At

which point, the extrusion strategy is changed to that of extruding

the outermost faces in a horizontal direction, since the base

element selected is a tetrahedron, what is inherited by all higher

BIOMIMETICS 46

systems as a characteristic, is that they are all composed of

triangular faces, it is noticed that the outermost faces are grouped

in three clusters of tree faces each, each cluster is composed of

two outer triangles “pointing up” and a middle triangle “pointing

down”, this configuration is very reminiscent of the placation

patterns explored on the petunia, particularly along the main veins

in the petals, which allows for the petal to hold its shape, this is

taken as a new extrusion vocation.

When a final morphology is reached, with inspiration drawn from

the dynamics in the venation patterns from the petunia, an

analogy to the structural workings of said patterns is derived into

two distinct venation patterns, one mainly structural, holding the

whole form together, as well as serving as support for the

secondary venation pattern emerging from it, which is also

structural, but in the sense that it provides support for the skin on

a more regional sense. Finally, the skin emerges from the

secondary venation pattern and as a direct analogy to the

softening of light that takes place in the petunia, the skin of the

butterfly house is also pigmented as a light control mechanism.

The top level system undergoes topological deformations

following axioms referring to the fact that the architectural object

must be accommodated in a physical site, and therefore site

considerations and forces are introduced as procedures in a

site/phototropic related deformation.

Concluding Notes

An unusual source of ideas, the petunia is an amazingly efficient

assembly, where structure is optimized to the maximum, and as it

radiates outward, its veins thin out gradually in a manner

consistent with having the right amount of structural material all

along the petal, also to be noted is the fact that the vein, apart

from being a structural member in itself, it also serves as a

circulation system and folds the petal’s material in a way that such

thin material also contributes to the stiffness of the whole petal.


Source: Images by the author

PRIMARY VENATION PATTERN.

SECONDARY VENATION PATTERN.

PLAN/SECTION.

TERRAIN INFLUENCED DEFORMATIONS.

BIOMIMETICS 48

Source: Images by the author

A.

A. External view depicting vein arrangements.

B. Dense pigmentation on skin and light pigmentation as light control mechanism.

C. Butterfly space with the “topological torus hole” for visitors below.

D. Hierarchical structural and material system of both venation patterns and the skin.

D.

B.

C.

GENETIC ARCHITECTURE 49

GENETIC ARCHITECTURE

The evolution of life and intelligence on Earth has finally reached the

point where it is now deemed possible to engender something

almost out of nothing. In principle, a universe of potential worlds

based on generative principles inherent within nature and the

physical universe are becoming possible. For the first time, mankind

is finally in possession of the power to change and transform the

genetic constitution of biological species, which, without a doubt,

has profound implications for the future of life on Earth (Karl S. Chu,

2004 online).

Karl S. Chu, Professor of Genetic Architecture, thus describes the

particular moment in time that we are living through, he further

elaborates on how, in less than seventy years, since the inception

of the Universal Turing Machine we have arrived to the Internet,

which is reconfiguring the world and how it is becoming an

interactive organ active with “neural intelligence” (Chu, 2006

p.39).

The Turing Machine, an abstract mathematical rather than real‐

world object envisioned to determine the limitations of what can

be computed, was first conceived by Alan Turing, who was

interested in the question of what it means to be computable.

Theoretically this machine has a read write head through witch an

infinite paper tape with symbols 0 and 1 is read or written to, one

cell at a time, the machine can be at any of a finite number of

states, the actions of the machine is determined by: the current

state, the symbol being scanned, and a table of transition rules,

the theory further states that a function will be Turing‐computable

if there exists a set of instructions that will result in the machine

computing the function regardless of the amount of time it takes.

The computational capabilities of a Turing Machine include the

ability of emulating another Turing Machine when fed with a tape

containing the encoding of the other machine, this is known as the

Universal Turing Machine (Barker‐Plummer, David. SEP).


The laws of physics, as explained by Professor Karl S. Chu (2005),

determine the allowed mechanical operations of a Universal

Turing Machine, and also determine the mathematics that make

them computable, in this statement, Chu finds that the

inescapable relation between physics and computation, has

created the awareness that physical processes are, as a matter of

fact, forms of computation. According to him, this awareness

announces the “untainted ambition of the biogenetic revolution”

(p.161), and proclaims that the world will witness a biomachinic

mutation of species that will proliferate into what has so far been

the cultural landscape of humanity.

In Chu’s (2005) opinion, this revolution will derivate in the

downfall of anthropology which has always subsumed

architecture, this emancipation of architecture presents great

opportunities such as a “new kind of xenoarchitecture with its

own autonomy and will to being” (p.162).

Architecture, has introduced computational methods to the

practice, as far as design and construction, but has done so using

concepts from the old paradigm, according to Chu (2006), the

introduction of “architecture of computation” (p.42) into the

computation of architecture still has a long way to come.

Morphogenetic architecture stands on the basis of internal

principles that generate form and organization, in a way, “the will

to architecture” (p.167), which as pointed out by Chu (2005), is

clearly missing in Morphodynamic architecture, which relies solely

in exogenousxii factors to control the composition of the

architectural morphology.

The time and opportunity to formulate a new theory of

architecture is at hand, and as noted by Karl S. Chu, it should be

one that:

… is adequate to the demands imposed by the convergence of

computation and biogenetics in the so‐called Post‐Human Era: a

monadology of genetic architecture that deals with the construction

of possible worlds. As we now approach what Ray Kurzweil refers to

STUDIO 3 – CODED ARCHITECTURES 51

as the Singularity, the myth of matter, which underlies most

theoretical and practical discussions of architecture, is about to be

displaced by the myth of information. Contrary to Mies Van de

Rohe’s oft‐quoted remark that architecture is the art of putting two

bricks together, the emerging conception is that architecture is the

art of putting two BITS together, at least bits that are programmed to

self‐replicate, self‐organize and self‐synthesize into ever new

constellations of emergent relations and ensembles (2006 p.42).

Chu recalls Gottfried Lebinz who coins the term “monadxiii” and

defines it as indivisible primary “true atoms of nature”, he explains

that something that has no parts can’t be extended, have a shape,

or be split up. From this concept, Chu derives the concept of “one

BIT of information at the most irreducible level, and by extension a

unit of a self‐replicating system” (Chu, 2006 p.45) as a monad in

computational architecture, concept on which, a monadology of

genetic architecture is developed.

By detaching the terms “gene” and “genetics” from their biological

implications, the definitions of “units […] that determine the

hereditary characteristics” (p.45) and “study of heredity” (p.45),

are abstract enough to be used as concepts with logical

implications in architecture. Implicit in the definition of genetics, is

the concept that heritable units, based on a rule that is part of the

genetic code, must have the ability to replicate themselves. Chu

emphasizes that this terminology is used in a manner generic

enough that it must be understood that genetic architecture is

neither a representation of biology nor a form of biomimesis.

Studio 3 – Coded Architectures

Studio description

The studio directed by Prof. Karl S. Chu, has the purpose of

studying the potentials present in self generating architectures

through the use of algorithms.

Stephen Wolfram (2002) introduces us to the concept of cellular

automata, he states that “any program can in some level be


thought of as a set of rules that specify what it should do in each

step” (Wolfram, 2002 p.23) and thereby, the cellular automata is a

process where, (for the case of a simple two dimensional cellular

automata), a matrix consisting of cells that can be either colored

black or white, simple rules are established for all cells. When the

program is run, each cell in turn, takes the information (color in

this case) in neighboring cells from the previous step, and based

on the rules established and information from the other cells turns

either black or white, the rules are systematically carried out in

each step, until an end condition is met. Wolfram’s research in this

matter indicates that out of the simple rules established, results

range from solid patterns, simple repetitive, such as checkered

and striped patterns, through complex, but still repetitive nested

patterns to completely irregular and non‐periodical. He further

states that the complexity of the resulting pattern is not

proportional to the complexity of the rule established, since the

rules are equally complex in all cases (within the same type of

automata).

Exercise – A museum: In itself, for itself and for others

In order to understand the nature of an entity in itself, for itself,

and for others, it is necessary to define, or redefine certain

concepts. Martin Heidegger (2000) presents us with one relevant

concept, the Greek word phusis, which was originally used to label

beings as such and as a whole, which when translated to Latin,

and due to the inexactitude of translations, was changed to

natura, which really means to be born, loosing the originary

content. Heidegger emphasizes that the word phusis means “what

emerges from itself” (Heidegger, 2000 p.15) such as “the

emergence, the blossoming of a rose, the unfolding that opens its

self up, the coming‐into‐appearance of such unfolding and holding

itself and persisting in appearance” (Heidegger, 2000 p.16).

Even though phusis is not synonymous with these processes, as

emergence, it can be experienced in the rising of the sun, surging


of the sea, the growth of plants. This “holding itself and persisting

in appearance” (Heidegger, 2000 p.16) is not just one among other

processes that are observed in beings. Therefore, not considering

it as a natural process, but rather a “fundamental experience of

being” is that Heidegger states that what the Greeks called phusis

is what disclosed itself to them, it includes “becoming” and

“Being”, “arising from the concealed and thus enabling the

concealed to take its stand for the firs time” (Heidegger, 2000

p.19).

In the conception of a genetic code as an organizing principle that

inherently spawns architectural form and organization, the

internal principles were established as described below:

The project

First stage – monadology and interaction. The definition of the

Arche–tecton, or principles and methods for the exercise has been

carried out by the whole studio, separated in two groups, each of

which developed the monad and the rules that applied to it in

terms of connections (self replication) and interactions (self

organization). In a manner of speaking, a design of a LEGO™ block.

The first sub‐system is developed using a tetrahedron with nodes

“a”, “b”, “c”, and “d”, being the three dimensional figure with the

simplest cyclical branching system, is taken as the basic building

block.

Said block, is replicated in five generations, and color coded in the

following manner: red ‐ original tetrahedron, orange ‐ first

replication, green ‐ second replication, cyan ‐ third replication and

magenta ‐ forth replication, each replication had to begin in the

last node of the last replication and has to be replicated attached

to the face created with the last three nodes (i.e. for the “a”, “b”,

“c”, and “d” tetrahedron, the next generation would be “b”, “c”,

“d” and “e”).


For each of these generations the branching system of the

composite shape adds one new level ending with a “molecule”

composed of five generations of tetrahedra. possible subtractions

of elements are explored finding for each of them the centroid of

the compound piece and performing a Boolean subtraction from

the centroid to several combination of “outer faces”. The resulting

“mutant” shapes are then color coded as follows: grey – outer

face, blue – inner face. The rules for this system are established as:

grey face may be attached to other elements, blue face may not

be attached.

Tetrahedron branching systems rules as self organizing process.

For each of these generations the branching system of the composite shape adds one new level ending with a “molecule” composed of five generations of tetrahedra

Source: elaborated by the author based on studio group work


The second sub‐system is developed by taking a cube as the base

form, which was then modified modularly in all three dimensions,

resulting in “box” shapes with different x, y and z proportions.

Each of these boxes is then cut along different planes intersecting

the original nodes of the box, resulting in a series of tetrahedrons

with triangular sides whose proportions vary according to the

proportions of the original box, the faces are then color coded

according to the proportions of their sides, and from there the

rules for the system are defined as: same color faces may be

attached to each other, size does not matter, only proportion of

the aristae.

The resulting rules of both sub‐systems are later combined into a

compound system, in order to develop them into an emergent

being.

Sub‐System 1

The block, is replicated in five generations, and color coded in the following manner: red ‐ original tetrahedron, orange ‐ first replication, green ‐ second replication, cyan ‐ third replication and magenta ‐ forth replication.

The rules for this system are established as: grey face may be attached to other elements, blue face may not be attached.

Source: Studio work

5

4

3

2

1


Second stage – Ruled self organization. With defined monads,

and sets of rules that apply to them, “inherited” into each team, (1

to 4 members each), the “possible worlds” that could emerge

from following the rules established in the fist step are further

explored. The team created for this part of the project is

integrated by Master studio members Effimia Giannopoulou,

Nelson Montas Laracuente and the author.

As seen in nature, beings tend to be “put together” according to

different sets of rules at different levels of scale, thereby it is

decided to establish scales and nickname them according to their

relative size to the whole deriving into seven scales from the

monads to the full body phusis. Each scale with its own set of rules

governing the interactions at that particular scale. It must be

noted that the nicknaming of each scale has little to do with the

sense that the term implies in biology, and more to do with

relative sizes of the parts to the whole.

Atomic, the first scale, the monad and its “inherited” rules as

established by the studio. It must be noted that element “1” from

the first sub‐system, when rotated, is identical in proportions to

element “J11” from the second sub‐system, and therefore, since

its faces are identical, it is the ideal interface between both.

Sub‐System 2

“Box” shapes with different x, y and z proportions. Each of these boxes is then cut along different planes intersecting the original nodes of the box, resulting in a series of tetrahedrons with triangular sides whose proportions vary according to the proportions of the original box,

Source: studio work


Therefore, element “1” from sub‐system 1 and element “J11”

from sub‐system 2 are chosen as the basic building block, and

natural interface between both sub‐systems. From now on,

whenever element “J11” is referred to, it must be understood that

both elements are included in such reference.

“J11” interacts with other elements through a “binder” element,

for this purpose, and following the rules of the second sub‐system,

element “J4” is chosen.

With these basic combinations, the atom may interact with other

similar elements in order to create larger forms.

Molecules, the possible interactions of the above mentioned

elements are explored thoroughly in order to uncover the

universe of distinct combinations. It must be noted that even

though the elements are fairly simple, said universe is very vast,

and the search for possible combinations of elements is restricted,

mainly due to time and computational power factors.

The resulting combinations achieved are then explored for their

interaction, replication and combination potentials in terms of

their feasibility to become or emerge into a more complex phusis,

the resulting interactions display all a varying degree of possible

interactions, some resulting in very small elements that could be

regarded as very primitive “forms of life” since they tend to lock

themselves into a closed shape, while others, because of the

nature of the interaction explored, could extend to infinity

undisturbed and unaltered. A few interactions rules resulted in

Element “J11” Element “J4” front, back and mirrored

Source: Studio Group work

Elements “J4” and “J11”


open shapes that have a vocation to interact with other similar

and un‐similar shapes.

Of the possible interactions, the one with the highest degree of

interactional vocation survives the process of artificial “natural

selection”. With interaction, replication and combination

potentials determined, the building blocks are ensambled by

mirroring the atomic element and its binders along its own “x” and

“y” axes in a first step, and then, in a second step following either

of the following additional rules in order to create molecule ∂ or

molecule ß as the growth pattern may require, being molecule ∂

an intermediate element, and ß an end, bending or folding

condition.

The additional rule is expressed as follows:

(∂)Alpha:mirror_1(+y_axis)=2,THEN mirror_1&2(+x_axis)=3& 4_END

(ß)Beta:mirror_1(+y_axis)=2,THEN mirror_2(+x_axis)=3_END

In essence, in both cases, a simple mirroring rule.

Compounds, the third scale is where both sub‐systems interact.

the “molecules” resulting from the previous step are either

combined with the tetrahedra “molecules” in sub‐system 1, (the

tetrahedra molecules 1.1, 4.3, 5.1 and 5.3 are selected), or are

fractalized, according to their function or position.

The atomic element and its binders (A) are mirrored twice along their own “x” and “y” axis in a first step.

The second step involves mirroring along both axes (B) and (C), with a change in the mirroring rule for the ß molecule (C).

Source: adapted fromStudio group project

A. B. C.


The rule for ∂ molecule states that it will interact with tetrahedra

molecules in the following way: molecule ∂ either fractilizes itself

as many times as the rule dictates, or nests once each of the

tetrahedral molecules in the cavity crated as a result of the

previous stage, and where four faces of element “J11” are

mirrored along “x” and “y” axes, each of these interactions results

in a compound, four of which, are possible, which of the two

possibilities occurs, is determined by an “organizer” cell, discussed

later on.

The rule for the ß molecule states that, since it is meant for an

end, bending or turning condition, it must not interact with

tetrahedra molecules, it may adhere as many “J11” elements as

required to achieve the necessary angle for turns or bends.

Examples of:

A. & D. Self locking assemblies.

B. & E. Assemblies extending to infinity.

C. Corner assemblies.

F. Replicable assembly.

Source: Studio Group project.

A. B. C.

D. E. F.

Fracmentalization of molecule

Source: adapted from Studio Group project.

Molecule ∂ interacting with tetrahedra molecules 1.1, 4.3, 5.1 and 5.3.

Source: adapted from Studio Group project

A. B. C. D.


Cells, As stated by Sean B. Carroll (2005), “The modular and

repetitive aspects of [body]7 design reflect an order to [body]

form” (p.25), he further points out that bodies are constructed of

repeated parts, and they themselves are constructed of repeated

units, being the main difference between members of the same

group or species, the number and kind of repetition, and the

variation of these aspects across species corresponds to the

adaptation to, and exploitation of the environment.

The fourth scale is where cells resulting from the combination of

the sub‐systems begin to arrange themselves following rules that

generate surface patterns covering the walls made out of cells.

The attachment rules established so far, are carried on at all

scales, but additional rules are required in each stage to assemble

the particularities of each scale. A basic non‐sequential pattern

rule is established to determine the sequence of the four

compounds, since such simple rule, repeated several times, would

eventually result in a periodic pattern, the rule is further

elaborated to include conditional and random functions every ten

cells (2.5 cycles). Thus, every time the rule determines the

compound present in the tenth cell, the conditional function

determines whether to skip compounds, and if so, the random

function determines how many should be skipped, in such way,

repetitive patterns are avoided, and the pattern achieved is

periodically morphing, since not all cell sequences comply and

therefore skip compounds simultaneously.

7 Because of the focus of his book, Caroll uses the word animal, for the purposes

of this work it is required to use a more general term, hence the use of the

word body


Organs, Symmetry and polarity are other traits that Carroll (2005)

combines to modularity, most animals exhibit a bilateral symmetry

meaning that left and right sides are mirrored along the central

axis, and by default, this also determines a rear and front side, and

a few exhibit radial symmetry, where the “organisms resemble a

pie where several cutting planes produce roughly identical

pieces”. Thompson (1992) further elaborates that symmetry is

highly characteristic of most organisms with exceptions such as

the amoeba, in which, rest and equilibrium deriving from

symmetry is also missing, he further explains that physical

equilibrium derives from formal symmetry and structural

The sub‐systems begin to arrange themselves following rules that generate surface patterns covering the walls made out of cells

Above: Cell matrix

Below: Cell arrangement

Source: Studio Group project


regularity because in a symmetrical system, a deformation that

tries to destroy the symmetry, is coupled by an equal and opposite

deformation that tends to restore it.

In embryology, Carroll (2005) explains, an “organizer” (p.41),

determines the type of cells that are produced and their particular

arrangement, which in turn, determines the location of body parts

such as limbs, the arrangement of fingers, and also share the

property of pattern formation and morphogenesis. In the fifth

scale, the general organization of the entity is laid out, in a matrix

determining the overall proportions of the artifact. This level is

more theoretical than real, since the organizers are not

represented in three dimensional shapes, but rater are laid out in

a matrix that axially determines general layout of the phusis, and

also determines particular growth patterns for each body part.

The matrix is organized with four cells at the centre where the

seeds, generated randomly, begin to populate the whole matrix

following a simple cyclical rule that spreads out, the four seed cells

are numbered in a clockwise manner, beginning at twelve, the first

(upper right) seed cell populates cells backwards (up), the second

(lower right) seed cell populates cells to the right, the third seed

cell (lower left) goes forward and finally the forth seed cell goes

left. The cells populated in the fist generation by seed cell number

one, now in turn populate all the cells to the left, the ones

populated by the second seed cell populate all the cells behind

(up), the ones from the third seed cell populate to the right and

finally from the fourth cell populate forward. The result of this

process produces a radial semi symmetrical disposition with a

spiral development.

With the application of the previously explained rules, the matrix

in its milieu is now populated with numbers (organizers) from 1 to

10, where, numbers from 1 to 9 will interact in the next step, and

number 10 determines a no‐growth zone.


Biological Systems, in the sixth scale, the general organization of

the matrix resulting from the previous step acts as a seed for the

rules that populate the matrixes above, the rules in this scale work

in both of the following ways simultaneously:

1. The first matrix turns numbers 1 trough 9 from the

organizer matrix to number 1, and number 10 from the

organizer matrix to number 0, where now 1 means growth

and 0 means no‐growth, hence establishing no‐growth

zones already in the organizer matrix. All the matrixes

above, in turn work as a three dimensional cellular

automata (Wolfram, 2002) with an additional aleatory

factor, they take the numbers from neighboring cells in the

previous matrix and average them out, resulting in a

fractional number between 0 and 1, where, the more

neighboring cells with 0 in the previous matrix results in a

lower average, this average is multiplied by an aleatory

number between 0 and 1, which in each case decreases or

increases the above mentioned average. The final number

is then rounded down to 0, or up to 1 depending on its

final value, below or above 0.5. From what has been

discussed so far, it can be established that, the greater the

amount of neighboring cells with 0 values on the previous

Organizer matrix, with seed cells at the centre, followed by primary and secondary population patterns indicated by colored arrows



matrix, decreases the overall value in the cell, and hence

increases the chances of becoming a no‐growth cell,

therefore, the probabilities of growth‐stop for cells is

higher for those neighboring either a border (no‐number in

cell is counted as 0), or a no‐growth zone, where the

aleatory number just adds a little randomness to the

growth process in an effort to simulate environmental

factors that escape the internal logic of growth. It must be

noted that this process is only applied to cells with values

of 1, since when a cell turns to a value of 0, the cells above

it inherit this value and do not go through the process any

more, and the value of 0 is still present only with the

purpose of neighboring cells to calculate their own

averages for subsequent levels.

2. The numbers from the organizer matrix are directly related

to a fractalization probability for the compounds in the

cells above, a higher number, other than 10, coupled with

an aleatory number, increases the probability of the cells

above undergoing a fractalization process, where the

fractalized element may undergo an additional

fractalization further on, but once fractalized, all the cells

above inherit the transformation. Each fractalization is

represented in the matrix by doubling the number in the

cell of the corresponding matrix. Fractalized cells still

undergo the cellular automata process described in point

1, and the fractalization process only affects its exterior

appearance.


Full body, the phusis, the emergent body “arising from the

concealed and thus enabling the concealed to take its stand for

the first time” (Heidegger, 2000 p.19). This stage pieces all the

assemblage together into a single gestaltic body as a result and

consequence of a methodological tracking of the rules established

for all levels of the assemblage.

Organizer matrix, and main evolutionary steps.

Ascending levels organized from left to right and down.

White. No‐Growth zone.

Pink. Growth zone.

Yellow. First fractalization.

Green. Second fractalization.

Source: Studio Group project


A.

B.

C.

A. Surface patterns generated by a non‐sequential guide.

B. Cluster of molecules that have been subjected to fractalization.

C. Complex arrangements achieved by following a conjunction of simple rules, an algorithm.

Facing Page.

D. Spaces created in the no‐growth zones.

E. The emergence of the full body or phusis



D.

E.


Concluding Notes

The project previously presented emerges from specific rule sets

acting on several levels, the assemblage of the full body was

manually executed, but the rules were also strictly followed, with

no room for personal interpretations, since the location and type

of each molecule is determined by the organizer matrix created on

a spread sheet which in turn, also feeds other spread sheets the

emanating numeric values for the assemblage with a strict logic

that determines propagation, direction and amount of growth.

Each level is in charge of specific functions and contributes

assembly information to the next level based on numeric rules,

hence even though it was not scripted in order to generate the

final form automatically, mainly due to time constrains, it would

be just a matter of time to elaborate a script that when executed

would automatically generate more phusis, each of them

completely different from the previous one, but still a member of

the same phylum.

It must be noted that, although there were rules set to determine

vertical growth based on a cellular automata that takes references

from neighboring cells in order to determine further growth,

which could have been used to determine horizontal growth as

well, on the absence of external references, the decision to

manually determine it was taken as an expression of that lack of

external references.

Finally, an important aspect of genetics is the ability to determine

hereditary characteristics and the mutation of said information

through the generations. In view that the rules applied to

generate the body are programmed into a spread sheet, and each

time it is run, a new composition is generated, since the seed

values are spawn from a random function, a “program” for the

genetic code is available. The question on the relevance of said

code to be inherited by the next generation remains open, since it


does not make any difference if the spread sheet is run for the

first time, or for the hundredth, this particular aspect of evolutive

variation could have been programmed into the matrix in order to

reward certain growths and punish others, but, again, these rules,

in the absence of external (environmental) references would be an

artificial way of simulating hereditary traits and the mutation of

them.

A SEARCH FOR MEANING 70

A SEARCH FOR MEANING

Chaos

With the purpose of establishing a coherent framework of

reference, it is now essential to analyze Deleuze’s book What is

philosophy? In greater detail, in the general idea of the book,

beyond explaining what philosophy is, it goes further in explaining

the three creative modes of thinking, mainly; philosophy, science

and art. Although their methods of thinking are different, what

they share in common is their approach to chaos in an attempt to

bring order to it.

As mentioned before, philosophy creates concepts and

contextualizes them in a plane of immanence. “Philosophy is a

constructivism, and constructivism has two qualitatively different

complementary aspects: the creation of concepts and the laying

out of a plane.” (p.39) This plane is not a thought concept or even

thinkable, but the “image of thought” (p.41) that represents an

orientation in thought, this image of thought “retains only what

thought can claim by right” (p.41). Which according to Deleuze is

infinite movement. On the topic, he elaborates:

[…] movement is not the image of thought without being also the

substance of being. […] The plane of immanence has two facets, as

thought and as nature, as Physis and as Nous. This is why there are

always several infinite movements, interlaced one within the other,

folded into each other, in the measure that one returns,

instantaneously re‐launches another, in such a way that the plane of

immanence is constantly being woven […] Diverse movements of the

infinite are so mixed in with each other that far from breaking up

the One‐All of the plane of immanence, they constitute its variable

curvature, its concavities and convexities, in a certain way its fractal

nature (p.42‐43).

CHAOS 71

Physis referring to the intrinsic way of growth, without external

influence, thus endowing the Being with substance, and Nous, the

mind or intellect, as an image to thought.

Deleuze clarifies that the plane moves infinitely while the concepts

that populate it have intensive movements in their realm. Further:

“while [the plane] is about absolute directions of a fractal nature,

[the concept] is about absolute dimensions, surfaces or volumes

always fragmented” (p.44).

The fact that the plane of immanence is considered pre

philosophical, according to Deleuze is probably more related to

philosophy than philosophy itself since the notion of pre

philosophical8 has noting to do with its preexistence, but rather to

the fact that it must not relate to any concept but to an

understanding that is intuitive when it is laid out.

The beginning of philosophy is reflected on the concept and is

instituted by the plane, which is “not a program, design, end, or

means; it is a plane of immanence that constitutes the absolute

ground of philosophy, its earth or deterritorialization, the

foundation in which it creates its concepts. Both the creation of

concepts and the instituting of the plane are required” (p.45).

It is alleged by Deleuze that the prephilosophical nature of the

plane of immanence, before thought occurs, its layout is

experimental and not rational or reasonable, it is deployed by

“measures [that belong] to the order of dreams, pathological

processes, esoteric experiences, drunkenness and excess”.

Therefore:

The plane of immanence is like a section through chaos, acts as a

filter, since chaos is in effect less characterized by the absence of

determinations than the infinite speed at which they schematize and

vanish […]. Chaos is not an inert or stationary state, is not a random

mixture. Chaos disarrays all consistency to infinity. The problem of

8 Mentioned on page number 4 of this book (Immanence and Concept).


philosophy consists on acquiring consistency without losing it to the

infinity in which thought submerges (p.46).

Providing consistency without loosing anything to infinity is different

from the problem of science, which deals with providing references

to chaos in exchange of giving up the movements and infinite speeds

and firstly impose a speed limit: what comes first in science is the

light or the relative horizon. Philosophy on the other hand proceeds

presupposing or instituting the plane of immanence (p.47).

The very nature of the plane of immanence is “surrounded by

illusions” (p.52), since “there are no abstract misinterpretations or

just external pressures but rather thought’s mirages” (p.52).

Deleuze speculates the need of such nature for the plane of

immanence as a relative horizon that imprisons us, arising from

the “sluggishness of our brains” (p.52), the “ready made

facilitating paths of dominant opinions” (p.52) and “by our not

being able to tolerate infinite movements or master infinite

movements or the infinite speeds that crush us” (p.52).

Since it is these very illusions that layout the plane, Deleuze

emphasizes the need of them emanating from the plane of

immanence itself, since the exogenous nature of what is brought

into the plane may result in: “the illusion of transcendence, which

perhaps, comes before all the others […] [in making the plane

immanet to an exogenous influence]; then there is the illusion of

universals when concepts are confused with the plane” (p.52).

From chaos the plane of immanence takes the determinations with

witch it makes its infinite movements or its diagrammatic features.

Consequently we must presuppose a multiplicity of planes, since no

one plane could encompass all the chaos without collapsing back

into it; and each retains movements that can be folded together

(p.53).

Now comes the turn of science, and its particular relation to

philosophy, which is compared and contrasted by Deleuze as

follows:

The object of science is not concepts but rather functions that are

presented as positions in discursive systems. The elements of

CHAOS 73

functions are called functives. A scientific notion is defined not by

concepts but by functions or propositions. […] it is this idea of the

function which enables the sciences to reflect and communicate.

Science does not need philosophy for these tasks. On the contrary,

when an object, a geometrical space, for example, is scientifically

constructed by functions, its philosophical concept, which is by no

means given in the function, must still be discovered. Further, a

concept may take as its components the functives of any possible

function without acquiring in that the least scientific value, and with

the purpose of pointing out the difference in nature among concepts

and functions (p.117).

Under these conditions, the first difference between science and

philosophy is their respective attitudes towards chaos. Chaos is

defined not so much by its disorder as by the infinite speed with

which every form taking shape in it vanish. It is a void that is not

nothingness, but a virtual, containing all possible particles and

drawing out all possible forms, which spring up only to disappear

immediately, without consistency or reference, without

consequence. Chaos is an infinite speed of birth and disappearance.

Now philosophy wants to know how to retain infinite speeds while

gaining consistency, by giving the virtual a consistency specific to it.

The philosophical strainer, as plane of immanence that cuts through

the chaos, selects infinite movements of thought and is filled with

concepts formed like consistent particles going as fast as thought.

Science approaches chaos in a completely different, almost opposite

way: it relinquishes the infinite, infinite speed, in order to gain

reference able to actualize the virtual. By retaining the infinite,

philosophy proceeds with a plane of immanence or consistency to

the virtual through concepts, by relinquishing the infinite, science

gives a reference to the virtual, which actualizes it through

functions. Philosophy proceeds with a plane of immanence or

consistency, science with a plane of reference (p.118).

The slowing down to which Deleuze refers does not imply a static

nature of science, but to an effort to parameterize chaos, establish

references and set limits to it. “The first functives are therefore

the limit and the variable, and reference is a relationship between

values of the variable or, more profoundly, the relationship of the

variable, as abscissa of speeds with the limit” (p.118).


There must be systems of coordinates to which the terms of

relationships refer; this is then a second sense of limit, an external

framing or exoreference. For these protolimits, outside all

coordinates, initially generate speed abscissas on which axes will be

set up that can be coordinated. A particle will have a position, an

energy, a mass and a spin value but on condition that it receives a

physical existence or actuality, or that it “touches down” in

trajectories that can be grasped by systems of coordinates (p.119).

When imposing a limit to the speeds “the virtual forms of chaos

tend to be actualized in accordance with an ordinate”. […] But the

forms nonetheless constitute variables independent of those that

move the abscissa” (p.121). Hence, it is not about confining

science to a linear temporal succession, but expressing the

different and “peculiarly serial, ramified time, in which the before

always designates bifurcations and ruptures to come, and the

after designates retroactive reconnections” (p.125).

Consequently, when Deleuze specifies the three major differences

between science and philosophy, he states the following:

The first difference between philosophy and science resides in the

respective presupposed of concept and function: a plane of

immanence or consistency in the first case a plane of reference on

the second. The plane of reference is one and multiple at the same

time, but in a different way than the plane of immanence. The

second difference is more directly related to the concept and

function: the inseparability of variations is proper of unconditioned

concept, while the independence of variables, is a conditional

relation pertaining to the function. In one case there is a set of

inseparable variations under a “contingent reason” that builds the

concept of variations; in the other case, a set of independent

variables under a “necessary reason” that constitutes the function of

variables (p.126).

Finally, there is a third major difference, which no longer concerns

the repetitive presuppositions or the element as concept or function

but the mode of enunciation. To be sure, there is as much

experimentation in the form of thought experiment in philosophy as

there is in science, and, being close to chaos, the experience can be

overwhelming in both. But there is also as much creation in science

as there is in philosophy or the arts. There is no creation without

CHAOS 75

experiment. Whatever the difference between scientific and

philosophical languages, their relationships with so called natural

languages, functives (including axes of coordinates) do not pre exist

ready‐made any more than concepts do (p.128).

In order to further illustrate the difference,

A function can be enunciated without enunciating the concept, even

though it may and should be; a function of space can be enunciated

even though the concept of this space is not. A function in science

determines the state of affairs, a thing or body that actualizes the

virtual in the plane of reference and the system of coordinates; the

concept in philosophy expresses an event that provides the virtual

with consistency in a plane of immanence and in an ordered way

(p.135).

Nonetheless, despite the differences in approach, they share a

common objective, which is why:

The respective fields of creation is then found struggled for by

substantially different entities in both cases, but nevertheless

present a certain analogy in their tasks: a problem in science or

philosophy, is not about answering a question, but rather adapt and

co adapt with a “superior” taste as problematic faculty, the

elements corresponding to the process of determination. […] [Which

raises the question] theoretically, do the opposing arguments

impede any uniformization, even any reduction of concepts to

functives or the other way around [functions to elements]? And if

any reduction is impossible, how to conceive a set of positive

relations among both? (p.135).

It is necessary therefore to discover at the very heart of the

immanence of the lived by the subject, that subject’s acts on

transcendence capable of constituting new functions of variables or

conceptual references: in this sense the subject is no longer solipsist

and empirical but transcendental. We have seen that Kant began to

accomplish this task by showing how philosophical concepts are

necessarily related to a lived experience through a priori

propositions or judgment as functions of a whole of possible

experience. But it is Husserl who sees it through to the end by

discovering, in non numerical multiplicities or immanent percepto

affective fissional sets, the triple root of acts of transcendence

(thought) through which the subject constitutes first of all a sensory

world filled with objects, then an intersubjective world occupied by


the other, and finally a common ideal world that will be occupied by

scientific, mathematical and logical formations. Numerous

phenomenological or philosophical concepts (such as “being in the

world”, “flesh”, “ideality”, etc.) are the expression of these acts.

They are not only life experiences that are immanent to the solipsist

subject but references to the transcendental subject to life

experience; they are not perceptive affective variables, but major

functions which find in these variables their respective trajectories

of truth (p.143).

Finally, Deleuze sheds light over the third form of creative

thinking, on the subject he writes that it is the only thing that

preserves, and within that preservation, preserves itself in the

support of its materials, whether it is for a short installation or in

stone for the duration of it. It is independent of the spectator or

reader who experiences it a posteriori, it is also independent of

the creator, by “self position of what is created that preserves

itself as a conjunction of sensations, that is to say a composite of

precepts and affects” (p.164).

Percepts are no longer perceptions; they are independent of a state

of those who experience them. Affects are no longer feelings or

affections; they go beyond the strength of those who undergo them.

Sensations, percepts and affects are beings whose validity lies in

themselves and exceeds any life experience. They could be said to

exist in the absence of man because man, as he is caught in stone,

on the canvas or by words, is himself a compound of percepts and

affects. The work of art is a being of sensation and nothing else: it

exists in itself (p.165).

The artist creates blocks of percepts and affects, but the only law of

creation is that the compound must stand up on its own […]

Standing up alone does not mean having a top and a bottom or

being upright, it is only the act by which the compound of created

sensations is preserved in itself (p.165).

As the creative process of thought is concerned, Deleuze states

the following:

Creative fabulation has nothing to do with a memory, however

exaggerated, or with a fantasy. In fact the artist, including the

novelist, goes beyond the perceptual states and affective transitions

CHAOS 77

of life experience. The artist is a seer, a becomer. How would he

recount what happened to him, or what he imagines, since he is a

shadow? He has seen something in life that is too great, too

unbearable also, and the mutual embrace of life with what

threatens it, so that the corner of nature or neighborhoods of the

city that he sees, along with its characters accede to a vision through

them that composes the percepts of that life, of that moment

(p.172).

[Further, he states that] composition, composition is the sole

definition of art, Composition is aesthetic, and what is not composed

is not a work of art. However technical composition, the work of the

material that often calls on science, is not to be confused with

aesthetic composition, which is the work of sensation. Only the

latter fully deserves the name composition, and a work of art is

never produced by or for the sake of technique (p.194).

Keeping in mind that this views architecture strictly from an

artistic point of view, when Deleuze specifically writes about it, he

states:

Art begins not with the flesh but with the house. That is why

architecture is the first of the arts. When Dubuffet tries to identify a

certain condition of art brut, he turns to the house, and all his work

stands between architecture, sculpture and painting. And not going

beyond form, the most scientific architecture endlessly produces

and joins planes and sections. That is why it can be defined by the

“frame”, by an interlocking of differently oriented frames, which will

be imposed on the other arts, from painting to cinema. The

prehistory of the picture has been presented as passing through the

fresco with the frame of the wall, stained glass within the frame of

the window, and mosaic within the frame of the floor: “The frame is

the umbilicus that attaches the picture to the monument of which it

is the reduction”, like the gothic frame, with small columns, diagonal

ribs, and openwork spire. By making architecture the first art of the

frame, Bernard Cache is able to list a certain number of enframing

forms that do not determine in advance any concrete content or

function of the edifice: the wall that cuts off, the window that

captures or selects (in direct contact with the territory), the ground

floor that wards off or rarifies (“rarefying the earth’s relief so as to

give a free path to human trajectories”), the roof that envelops the

place’s singularity (“the sloping roof puts the edifice on a hill”).

Interlocking these frames or joining up all the planes wall section,


window section, floor section, slope section is a composite system

rich in points and counterpoints. The frames and their joints hold

the compounds of sensations, hold up figures, and intermingle with

their upholding, with their own way of holding up. We have here the

faces of a dice of sensation. Frames or sections are not coordinates,

they belong to compounds of sensations whose faces, interfaces,

they constitute. But however extendable this system may be, it still

needs a vast plane of composition that carries out a kind of

deframing following vanishing lines that pass through the territory

only in order to open it to the universe that goes from house‐

territory to city‐cosmos, and that now dissolve the identity of the

place through variation of the earth, a town having not so much a

place as vectors folding the abstract line of relief. On this plane of

composition, as on “an abstract vectorial space”, geometrical

figures, cone, prism, dihedron, simple plane are laid out which are

nothing more than cosmic forces capable of merging, being

transformed, confronting each other and alternating world before

man, yet produced by man. The planes must now be taken apart in

order to relate them to their intervals rather than to one another

and in order to create new affects (p.189).

Art also deals with chaos, its particular way of dealing with it is in

the form of “a composition of chaos that yields the vision or

sensation, so that it constitutes, as Joyce says, a chaosmos, a

composed chaos, neither foreseen nor perceived” (p.206).

To bring together the similitude and discrepancy among the three

modes of thought, Deleuze writes as follows:

The three thoughts intersect and intertwine but without synthesis or

identification. With its concepts, philosophy brings forth events. Art

erects monuments with its sensations. Science constructs states of

affairs with functions. A rich net of correspondences can be

established between the planes. But the network has its culminating

points, where sensation itself becomes sensation of concept or

function, where the function becomes function of sensation or

concept. And none of these elements can appear without the other

being still to come, still indeterminate or unknown. Each created

element on a plane calls on other heterogeneous elements, which

are still to be created on other planes: thought as heterogenesis. It is

true that these culminating points contain two extreme dangers:

either leading us back to the opinion from which we wanted to

CHAOS 79

escape or precipitating us into the chaos that we wanted to confront

(p.201).

Deleuze concludes the book by stating that the three planes, of

immanence for philosophy, of composition for art and of

reference for science, are irreducible, and have analogous

problems. But what is more relevant to Deleuze is the interference

among planes that join up in the brain. In order to deal with this

interference he proposes that the “interfering discipline must

proceed with its own methods” (p.219) although he warns about

interferences that cannot be localized and complex or mixed

planes tricky to qualify.

When discussing percepts and affects, the author finds it

inescapable to bring Phenomenology and what Deleuze defines as

“phenomenological concepts” (p.145), from such definition, and

from Deleuze’s statement “In the end, does not every great

philosopher lay out a new plane of immanence, introduce a new

substance of being and draw up a new image of thought?” (p.54),

the phenomenological plane of immanence can be inferred, which

in the author’s opinion is essential to architecture.

On pertinence to the subject, Maurice Merlau‐Ponty (1962)

describes the following:

Phenomenology is the study of essences; and according to it, all

problems amount to finding definitions of essences: the essence of

perception, or the essence of consciousness, for example. But

phenomenology is also a philosophy which puts essences back into

existence, and does not expect to arrive at an understanding of man

and the world from any starting point other than that of their

‘facticity’. It is a transcendental philosophy which places in abeyance

the assertions arising out of the natural attitude, the better to

understand them; but it is also a philosophy for which the world is

always ‘already there’ before reflection begins—as ’an inalienable

presence; and all its efforts are concentrated upon re‐achieving a

direct and primitive contact with the world, and endowing that

contact with a philosophical status. It is the search for a philosophy

which shall be a ‘rigorous science’, but it also offers an account of

space, time and the world as we ‘live’ them. It tries to give a direct


description of our experience as it is, without taking account of its

psychological origin and the causal explanations which the scientist,

the historian or the sociologist may be able to provide (p.vii).

The transcendental importance of phenomenology derives in the

exploration of the essence of man, Merlau points out to the

following”

Science has not and never will have, by its nature, the same

significance qua form of being as the world which we perceive, for

the simple reason that it is a rationale or explanation of that world. I

am, not a ‘living creature’ nor even a ‘man’, nor again even ‘a

consciousness’ endowed with all the characteristics which zoology,

social anatomy or inductive psychology recognize in these various

products of the natural or historical process—I am the absolute

source, my existence does not stem from my antecedents, from my

physical and social environment; instead it moves out towards them

and sustains them, for I alone bring into being for myself (p.ix).

On the subject, Christian Norberg‐Schulz introduces his article The

Phenomenon of Place (1976) in the following manner:

Our everyday life‐world consists of concrete “phenomena”. It

consists of people, of animals, of flowers, trees and forests, of stone,

earth, wood and water, of towns, streets and houses, doors,

windows and furniture. And it consists of sun, moon, and stars, of

drifting clouds, of night and day and changing seasons. But it also

comprises more intangible phenomena such as feelings. This is what

is “given”, this is the “content” of our existence […] Everything else,

such as atoms and molecules, numbers, and all kind of “data”, are

abstractions or tools which are constructed to serve other purposes

than those of everyday life. Today it is common to mistake those

tools for [tangible] reality (p.414).

He further argues that what constitutes our real world is

interrelated in complex and sometimes contradictory ways in

comprehensive phenomena which may in turn serve as

environments to other phenomena, where place, as a concrete

term includes the taking place where it would be “meaningless to

imagine any happening without reference to locality” (p.414), this

constitutes place into “an integral part of existence” (p.141),

which goes beyond an abstraction of place, it means:

CHAOS 81

A totality made up of concrete things having material substance,

shape, texture, and colour. Together these things determine an

“environmental character”, which is the essence of place. In general

a place is given as such a character or “atmosphere”. A place is

therefore a qualitative, “total” phenomenon, which we cannot

reduce to any of its properties, such as spatial relationships, without

loosing its concrete nature out of sight (p.414).

From everyday experience, we derive that actions require

particular environments to take place, and therefore the built (and

un‐built) environment consists of a multitude of “particular

places”, Norberg recognizes that current theory of planning and

architecture does take this fact in consideration, but notes that it

is so in a very abstract way, “Taking place is usually understood in

a quantitative, functional sense, with implications such as spatial

distribution and dimensioning” (p.415).

He proposes that these “functions” such as sleeping, eating take

place in different ways depending on the cultural traditions, and

thus demand places with different properties to determine their

particular identity.

He further argues that:

Being qualitative totalities of a complex nature, places cannot be

described by means of analytic, “scientific” concepts. As a matter of

principle science “abstracts” from the given to arrive at neutral

“objective” knowledge. What is lost, however is the everyday life‐

world, which ought to be the real concern of man in general and

planners and architects in particular (p.415).

In order to attend the void left by the objective knowledge of

science, and considering that phenomenology was conceived as a

“return to things” (p.415), Christian therefore puts forth the need

for a “phenomenology of architecture” (p.415) in order to

preserve the subjective content of the character of place.

“Character” as explained by Norberg‐Schulz, is a concept that is

simultaneously more general and concrete than “space”, it

represents both a “general comprehensive atmosphere” and “the

concrete form and substance of space defining elements” (p.419)


and even though it is denoted by adjectives, such as “protective”,

“practical” or “festive”, hence, “any real presence is intimately

linked with a character” (p.419), it is a “totality” so complex that a

single adjective cannot cover more than one aspect of this

“totality”.

Further he emphasizes that character is also a very dynamic

totality, since it changes with the lighting conditions, time of the

day, season of the year, and boundaries of the space which are

dynamic respect to the observer.

Norberg‐Schulz states that the “environmental totalities which

comprise the aspects of character and space” (p.420), manifest

themselves as the structure of place which is in turn designated by

nouns, where nouns designate the places in a system of relations

such as “before”, “over”, “within” to name a few, “prepositions

[that] denote topological relations […] [of] real things that exist”

(p.420).

Places may present themselves in several scales designated

“environmental levels” (p.421), where the higher scales are

denoted by such terms as “country” or “landscape” that contain

the lower levels which perform the function of “gathering” and

“focusing” in a way that “man receives the environment and

makes it focus on buildings and things. The things thereby explain

the environment and make its character manifest. Thereby the

things themselves become meaningful” (p.421).

Man made places are related to nature in three basic ways. Firstly,

man wants to make the natural structure more precise. That is, he

wants to visualize his understanding of nature expressing the

existential foothold he has gained. To achieve this, he builds what he

has seen. Where nature suggests a delimited space he builds an

enclosure; where nature appears centralized, he creates a Mal;

where nature indicates a direction, he makes a path. Secondly, man

has to symbolize his understanding of nature (including himself).

Symbolization implies that an experienced meaning is “translated”

into another medium. A natural character is for instance translated

into a building whose properties make that character manifest. The

CHAOS 83

purpose of symbolization is to free the meaning from the immediate

situation, whereby it becomes a “cultural object”, which may form

part of a more complex situation, or be moved to another place.

Finally, man needs to gather the experienced meanings to create for

himself an imago mundi or micro cosmos which concretizes the

world. Gathering evidently depends on symbolization, and implies a

transposition of meanings to one place, which thereby becomes an

existential “centre” (p.421).

Norberg‐Schulz presents the concept of “dwelling” in the

existential sense as the act of living, getting used to and

interiorizing the “place” by means of visualization, symbolization

and gathering, and thus making the environment and human’s

relation to it, a “unified whole”. Further, he adds:

Architecture belongs to poetry, and its purpose is to help man dwell.

But architecture is a difficult art. To make practical towns and

buildings is not enough. Architecture comes into being when a “total

environment is made visible” to quote the definition of Suzanne

Langer. In general, this means to concretize the Genius Loci. We

have seen that this is done by means of buildings which gather the

properties of the place and bring them close to man. The basic act of

architecture is therefore to understand the “vocation” of the place.

In this way we protect the earth and become ourselves part of a

comprehensive totality. What is here advocated is not some kind of

“environmental determinism”. We only recognize the fact that man

is an integral part of the environment, and that it can only lead to

human alienation and environmental disruption if he forgets that.

To belong to a place means to have an existential foothold, in a

concrete everyday sense (p.426).

To compliment Norberg‐Schulz, Dennis Grebner (1988) states that

phenomenology considers the “endlessly continuous flow of

events” (p.41) as experience, while it is interpreted by a

“subjective consciousness” (p.41). and further argues to the

impossibility of being “analytically dissected, because it would lose

its very nature”. In his analysis of Gordon Cullen’s work, he

emphasizes that Cullen’s approach is based on “first hand

environmental experience” (p.42) instead of dealing with

theoretical topics (either scientific or philosophical), since the


“concrete human experience of the urban environment [is his]

ultimate source of understanding”.

With all that has been exposed about phenomenology the

pertinence of Deleuze’s statement “It is necessary therefore to

discover at the very heart of immanence of life experience to a

subject, that the subject’s acts of transcendence capable of

constituting new functions of variables or conceptual references”

(p.143) becomes evident.

An approach to chaos

Having analyzed Deleuze’s presentation of the three creative

modes of thought, its relevance to architecture and its conception

as an integral form rather than merely artistic, should be made

comprehensible. Therefore, the contribution of the force of

sensation, function of knowledge and form of concept, each with

its corresponding plane of composition, plane of reference and

plane of immanence must be discussed.

Architecture in its own way also deals with chaos, each time

architecture is conceived, the architect must submerge into chaos

and reemerge with a proposition that brings order to chaos,

revealing a concrete response that emerges from all the possible

worlds that exist in the Deleuzian virtuality of chaos to Lynn’s

“virtual […] abstract scheme that has the possibility of becoming

actualized” (p.10) in the context of the architectural problem at

hand, the chaos that must be morphologically conquered.

The plane of immanence is a filter through chaos and serves as a

filter to acquire consistency without loosing thoughts to infinity

and thus expresses an architectural consistency.

Animation is the key to freeze the infinite motion of what has

been defined in the following terms Movement as the image of

thought and its substance, its constant movements, foldings and

weavings need to be perpetuated in a freeze frame in order for it

to become an architectural schema, which far from breaking the

AN APPROACH TO CHAOS 85

unity of the plane of architectural immanence, instead constitute

its “variable curvature”. The plane becomes the architectural

expression while the concepts with their infinite speeds become

its form; they are localized absolute fragments of “inseparable

variations” of a “contingent reason” having events as consistency

and architectural topological distribution as its components.

Science supplies a reference to chaos providing the light of a

relative horizon in a plane of reference setting a limit to chaos

with systems that will coordinate physical existence to the

architectural form and by slowing down that infinite speed will

actualize the virtual through the establishment of functions where

the functives represent the limits to architecture and the variables

that will dictate its physical structural mechanic elements,

consequently the functions will be the relations of the values of

said variables and the references of the external framing or

exoreferences. The stratigraphic nature of time for science will

provide rhythm and repetition of said elements. Thus the virtual

forms of chaos can be actualized according to an ordinate,

“independent variables” from a “necessary reason”.

The plane of composition as an “infinite field of forces” (Deleuze

p.190) gather all the forces from the environment breaking the

boundaries of architecture and thus submerging it and affecting it

with the forces of the city, of the people. All the percepts and

affects in their independent form, materialized sensations that

stands up and exists in itself, thus preserving the sensations with

Composition, the ultimate definition of art, to which technical

composition must bow to.

All three modes of thought join forces that generate

morphogenesis, bring order to chaos, each with is particular

approach, their planes intersecting and where the intersection

occurs creating constructive and destructive interference while

the materializing process takes place in a symbiotic/chaotic

relation within the planes and components, each pulling the rope


in its own direction, while on a higher dimension they pull in the

same direction, towards architecture and away from chaos.

Certainly such approach would be unthinkable without the use of

computers, since the amount of variables it introduces to the

architectural creation is by far greater than what traditional

methods of design can cope with, the use of parametric design,

NURBS and topological modeling, and genetic algorithms to name

a few is of paramount importance for such undertaking.

Biomimetic approaches, both in terms of learning from nature as

far as novel ways of learning structures, functioning of systems

and interactions to name a few, and topological studies in order to

derive the morphology of architecture are essential, as are the

future developments in (biological) genetics in order to achieve a

genetic architecture with all the advantages of a living

environment that regenerates and heals itself.

Regardless of which, Karl Chu’s approach, in terms of the

extensive use of genetic algorithms, self organizing systems and

cellular automata, to name a few, is the one most suited for this

approach to architectural design, since it is the one most heavily

relies in the computational power and vertically integrated

systems that trickle up data from one sub system to its

corresponding system in order to achieve morphogenesis,

nevertheless, the strength of this approach is also its shortcoming,

since it leaves no space for the architect to, as Chu would say,

“impose the will of the architect” beyond the creation of the

genetic code that will result in the emergence of architecture and

the determination of rules for genetic mutation through the

generations.

As far as pure morphogenesis, Chu’s approach is fairly adequate,

but in light of a holistic approach to architecture, the shortcoming

becomes evident in aspects that pass through its own “will to

architecture” and go far beyond. In first instance, since it relies on

information from its own genetic code to generate form, all


information must consequently be introduced in that genetic code

in the form of parameters and rules for the computer to generate

form from them, and although other morphogenic approaches do

allow for exogenous information, they also do so in the form of

parameters, as in the case of Dollen’s botanical algorithms, or

even formulas, as in the case of Lynn’s Morphodynamic approach.

It is true that many aspects of the technical side of architecture

can be reduced to formulas or parameters, with which, a

computer can definitely outperform any human as far as

computing parameters and representing formulas, nonetheless

what this induces to, is to the creation of an architecture of only

parameters, only what can be computed has room in this

architecture, and although Wolfram would probably argue about

the complexity that can be created with simple rules in all his

right, as would Chu, Dollens, Lynn in favor of their own

approaches, which, it must be noted, are all a colossal

contribution to new directions in architecture as far as exploration

of the potentials of what Chu defined as the “architecture of

computation”. It must also be noted, such purely parametric

approach discards precepts and affects, and therefore, in terms of

art, boils down to simply a recipe for architecture, two eggs, flour,

salt, etc. Further, in the words of Deleuze:

[…] technical composition, the work of the material that often calls

on science, is not to be confused with aesthetic composition, which

is the work of sensation. Only the latter fully deserves the name

composition” (p.194).

On second instance, a purely parametric approach also leaves the

plane of immanence out of the picture, since, although some

philosophical concepts may be able to be parameterized, there are

others, in the author’s opinion the most important ones, that, as

has been discussed in this work, are impossible to parameterize,

phenomenological concepts can’t be reduced to functions, or in

other words:

[…] places cannot be described by means of analytic, “scientific”

concepts. As a matter of principle science “abstracts” from the given


to arrive at neutral “objective” knowledge. What is lost, however is

the everyday life‐world (Norberg‐Schulz p.415).

Having exposed all of the above, it is pertinent to point out that

ignoring, or not using to the full extent of their capabilities, all the

technological wonders that our new era is providing us with,

would be as myopic as a post Industrial Revolution architect

ignoring steel or production in series, it cannot and should not be

done. This raises a paramount question on how to integrate all of

the above into a single coherent body.

One possible answer to this question is brought about by GenJam,

a software jazz musician that:

learns to improvise jazz. It may well be the only evolutionary

computation system that is a "working musician." […] In addition to

playing full‐chorus improvised solos, GenJam listens to what I play

on trumpet and responds interactively when we trade fours or

eights. It also engages in collective improvisation, where we both

solo simultaneously and GenJam performs a smart echo of my

improvisation, delayed by anywhere from a beat to a measure.

Finally, it listens to me as I solo and play the "head" of a tune and

breeds my measures with its ideas, which steers its solo on a tune in

the direction of what I've just played on that tune (John A. Biles).

Although Biles’ computerized musician is based on a genetic

algorithm, which we have already seen applied to architecture,

what is outstanding about it is the fact that the system is

interacting with the human player in what is basically a two way

conversation.

The application of a genetic algorithm to architecture in

technological terms is nothing new, what would be novel about

such approach, considering the interaction between the computer

and the architect, would be the perspective from which it has to

be treated, instead of providing a genetic code for architecture,

now architect and computer have the ability to interact. In

technological terms, it would still be a genetic algorithm, but the

architectural perspective of it would require to be viewed as a

process of education of the architecture, now the architect is not


only the progenitor of architecture, but also the educator. Which

must not be viewed as a unidirectional relation, since the

architect‐computer relation must become a symbiotic one,

metaphorically speaking, the computer can sometimes be a horse

ridden by the architect, and at others, the architect acts as a

seeing dog for the computer, a blind person, the master servant

relation is inverted from one case to the other, nevertheless the

perspective is provided by the architect in both accounts.

Conceptually, once the parameters and rules of all that is

parameterizable are introduced in the computer, and such genetic

code begins its development or growth, the architect begins the

process of education and introduces the non parameterizable

concepts and sensations and in this way guides the developmental

stages of architecture, not in a master‐slave relation, but in a

parental way, giving the dichotomy of nature‐nurture an

architectural meaning, a true dialog, where the computer can

even say “no” and counter propose. For this purpose, a “Holding

Environment” would have to be established, which as defined by

Ronald Heifetz (1994) is where, conceptually a therapist, parent,

boss or even a friend holds the process of developmental learning,

as example:

For a Child, the holding environment serves as a containing vessel

for developmental steps, problems, crisis and stresses of growing

up. […] The Holding Environment can generate adaptive work

because it contains and regulates the stress that work generates

(p.104).

For explanatory purposes, through the course of the studios

described in this book, the word milieu is used to designate the

environment in which emergence takes place, by replacing such

word with the exposed “Holding Environment”, the atmosphere in

which this educational process takes place can be enunciated.

We are of course reminded that we are at the very beginning of

our new age, and there are lots of innovations still to come, which

reminds the author of a particular illustration used by Peter


Atherton, professor of Architectural history at the University of

Utah, where, if memory serves the author right, he compares the

Renaissance period of architecture with learning chess, where

during the early stages, the architect would learn the basic moves

of the individual pieces, by learning proportions and composition

and progress through the stages, to finally reach the high

Renaissance and Baroque periods where the architect would then

execute master moves, this portrays the fact that there is still a

long way to go, we should make the best of it.

Nature is about itineration, mutation, feedback through fitness

testing, so should be architecture, not forgetting where it comes

from, it should strive to improve itself and learn from other fields

of knowledge in search of new ways of producing architecture

taking advantage of all that is presented by the Information Age as

well as its own wisdom acquired through millennia. The author

does not dispute Karl Chu’s claim over a biomachinic mutation of

the species as an expression of a biogenetic revolution, since it is

obvious that people have a distinct predilection for “improving”

themselves, the technology will obviously be there soon enough

and the market supplies that which people demand, however,

regardless of whether we become a race of cybernetic biologic

organisms or not, the fact is that the essence is still going to be

human, the “cultural landscape of humanity” will of course be

affected by any mutation of the species, but will remain with

humans, hence precepts and affects will still matter.

The opportunity is here, and the challenge is to advance

architecture to a new age without loosing its ability to “transport

the mind to a higher [state of] consciousness that may cause a

fundamental transformation of being” (Bermúdez, Julio. 2008

p.127), in which an “exceptional architectural experience suspends

the habitual interpretational frameworks and induce a sensation

of wellbeing, holistic harmony and presence.” (p.128) where

Bermúdez explains the displacement from a dual experience to a

non‐dual, from a third detached person to a first person relation


with architecture, in other words, intimacy with Deleuze’s

percepts and affects as components of preserved sensations.

Since, in the end, as Estévez (1997) stated, “our right to surround

ourselves of myth and legend, angels and phantoms [must be

reaffirmed]!” (p.50).

In the light of this, it is the firm belief of the author that the need

for such comprehensive architecture is a must, as we walk into the

realm of a digital and genetic revolution, with a future so unlike

what has been seen so far, so unpredictable, so full of chaos and

opportunities beyond our wildest dreams.

Technology now days allows for the management of such

complexities, previously unthinkable amounts of parameters can

be systematically managed by a computer, this means that the

architecture will require a more methodological approach to a

computer, more knowledge in terms of programming, data entry

and management. This will result in a more rigorous but free

architecture.

CONCLUSIONS 92

CONCLUSIONS

The approaches to architecture presented in the current work are

all morphogenically oriented, although each has its own

perspective on how morphogenesis is accomplished, All the

architectural planes of immanence discussed present concepts

structured to their own ends, each plane of architectural

immanence resonates and clearly depicts its approach to

architecture and is logical and methodological in the execution of

each consecutive step of the process, its concepts are coherent

with the plane to which they belong, it can be said that each

approach is self contained and is consistent with itself as an

approach to morphogenesis.

The first approach, with biomimicry sets as an axiom the

exploration of nature and natural forms as well as natural

processes, not to merely replicate them or to produce an

architecture that looks like the source of inspiration, but to

analytically examine the form or process, source of inspiration,

and from what is learned in the course of erudition, elaborate a

formal proposal that is congruent with the principles that are

derived from the thorough study, there are aspects of scale,

function, usability of space and materials that make the mere

replication not only a mockery but also unrealistic. A great deal of

the thought is involved in the adaptation and resolution of the

above mentioned aspects in order to achieve a usable or habitable

architectural form. Even so, since nature has evolved through

millennia of constant adaptation and mutation in order to achieve

its present state, it can be inferred that what has been achieved by

nature is there because it stood to the test of time. This does not

imply a conclusion of any process, on the contrary it must be

recognized as a work in progress and since the environment

changes through the ages, so must the forms and processes of

nature adapt to said changes.

CONCLUSIONS 93

The Floral Obsession approach searches for topological, as well as

structural and morphological inspiration in natural forms,

specifically those of any variety of flowers, from where the

systems are deduced and reinterpreted in order to generate

architectural form, learning simple, yet efficient ways of devising

new structures, concepts regarding the use of materials in ways

contrary to the main trend, wasteful and inconsistent since they

are cheap, while nature reminds us that in nature nothing is cheap

and the level of optimization it achieves is awe‐inspiring.

Topologically analyzing the flower also brings new insights as far

as spatial relations in regards to interactions, evolution of from,

and dynamics of space. The integration of all the interactions

mentioned above also induces a character of space that may be

suitable to be adapted to the final architectural form.

Karl Chu’s Genetic architecture approach detaches the biological

implications of genetics and introduces an algorithmic implication,

where the genetic code is represented by concrete sets of

instructions that result in the emergence of form.

Rules are established at different levels, as well as the relations

and effects that each level will produce on the next one, true to

the concept of genetic information, from where an autonomous

entity is created, much like in a cellular automata, the

predictability of results is not definite, since it is the interaction of

rules that determines the final architectural form.

What is common to all the approaches seen before is the insertion

of multidisciplinary thinking, they each borrow concepts and adapt

them to their plane of architectural immanence, the concepts

inherit some of the meaning from where they are borrowed from,

but also acquire additional components of meaning relative to the

plane in which they inhabit now, in so doing, they enrich their

planes through analogy of concepts and functions.

Philosophy through the interaction of concepts in the plane of

immanence, Science through the interaction of functions in a

CONCLUSIONS 94

plane of consistency and the arts through sensations as the

expression of human desires and the phenomenology of being can

further interact in ways to morphologically produce new and

exiting architectures that encompass the balance of scientific

knowledge learning from nature, art as the expression of the

human soul, its most deeply rooted fears and dreams and the

cultural baggage that humans carry along, each with its own plane,

which in turn interact with the architectural plane of immanence

as a common ground that bring them together in a harmonious

manner into a single consistent morphogenesis.

Since architecture is neither philosophy nor science, and although

there is general agreement that it belongs to art, agreement which

the author shares, it is a very particular kind of art that through

the ages has compromised with science in the form of technology

and has recurrently resourced to philosophy in order to bring

order to chaos, it is therefore in a particularly interesting position

that allows architecture to compromise with all three and even

bring them together in a gestaltic tripartite Ying Yang, where the

whole is more than the sum of its parts and the parts, though

opposed, compliment each other and continuously redefine each

other, not exogenically affecting science, philosophy and art, since

it is not its purpose, but in creating a multidisciplinary architecture

that borrows what it needs and in return may suggest new paths

for science, philosophy and art.

The conjunction of forces provides architecture the what, how and

why beyond the dictates of programmatic issues. It should be

emphasized that what is expressed in this book is not, and should

not constitute itself as a recipe for architecture, but rather a mode

of thinking in architecture.

The interaction would create an architecture of balance, but not

static balance as it is traditionally understood, rather of dynamic,

complementing balance.

CONCLUSIONS 95

This interaction of philosophy, science and art will result in

Immanence Conceptualized Architectures.

When God said to Adam: “You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on

the Earth (Genesis 4,12)” he put man in front of his most basic

problem: to cross the threshold and regain the lost place (p.426).

Christian Norberg‐Schulz.

CONCLUSIONS 96

As an afterthought, the author would like to quote Deleuze once

more:

The plane of philosophy is prephilosophical insofar as we consider it

in itself independently of the concepts that come to occupy it, but

nonphilosophy is found where the plane confronts chaos. Philosophy

needs a nonphilosophical comprehension just as much as art needs

nonart and science needs nonscience (p.219).

The logical deduction out of this statement would be that the

architectural plane also needs a nonarchitecture, which would be

an ironically fortunate circumstance, since we already have

enough of that.

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APENDIX I 100

APENDIX I9

i caryatid (Καρυάτις), in classical architecture, draped female figure used

instead of a column as a support. (Encyclopædia Britanica)

ii topology. Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary. Date: 1850. 1 :

topographic study of a particular place; specifically : the history of a region as

indicated by its topography. […](Merriam‐Webster Dictionary)

iii phylum. Etymology: New Latin, from Greek phylon tribe, race — more at phyl‐

Date: 1876. 1 a : a direct line of descent within a group b : a group that

constitutes or has the unity of a phylum; specifically : a primary category in

biological taxonomy especially of animals that ranks above the class and below

the kingdom — compare division 10. 2 : a group of languages related more

remotely than those of a family or stock (Merriam‐Webster Dictionary)

iv trabecula. 1 : a small bar, rod, bundle of fibers, or septal membrane in the

framework of a bodily organ or part (as the spleen). 2 : one of a pair of

longitudinally directed more or less curved cartilaginous rods in the developing

skull of a vertebrate that develop under the anterior part of the brain on each

side of the pituitary gland and subsequently fuse with each other and with the

parachordal cartilages to form the base of the cartilaginous cranium. 3 : any of

the intersecting osseous bars occurring in cancellous bone. (Merriam‐Webster

Dictionary)

v apatite. : any of a group of calcium phosphate minerals occurring variously as

hexagonal crystals, as granular masses, or in fine‐grained masses as the chief

constituent of bones and teeth and of phosphate rock ; especially : calcium

phosphate fluoride Ca5F(PO4)3 (Merriam‐Webster Dictionary)

vi homeostasis. Etymology: New Latin. Date: 1926: a relatively stable state of

equilibrium or a tendency toward such a state between the different but

interdependent elements or groups of elements of an organism, population, or

group. (Merriam‐Webster Dictionary)

vii adnation Floral organs are often united or fused: connation is the fusion of

similar organs. (Encyclopædia Britanica)

9 Although unusual in this type of publication, since its contents are cross

disciplinary, the insertion of this section is deemed to be helpful to clarify

certain definitions that may not be so obvious in a multidisciplinary setting.

APENDIX I 101

viii connation Floral organs are often united or fused: connation is the fusion of

similar organs. (Encyclopædia Britanica)

ix milieu. Etymology: French, from Old French, midst, from mi middle (from

Latin medius) + lieu place, from Latin locus — more at mid, stall. Date: 1854.

(Merriam‐Webster Dictionary)

x pistil. Etymology: New Latin pistillum, from Latin, pestle — more at pestle.

Date: circa 1741. : a single carpel or group of fused carpels usually

differentiated into an ovary, style, and stigma. (Merriam‐Webster Dictionary)

xi calyx. Etymology: Latin calyc‐, calyx, from Greek kalyx — more at chalice.

Date: 1693. 1 : the usually green outer whorl of a flower consisting of sepals. 2 :

a cuplike animal structure (as the body wall of a crinoid). (Merriam‐Webster

Dictionary)

xii exogenous. Etymology: French exogène exogenous, from exo‐ + ‐gène (from

Greek ‐genēs born) — more at –gen. Date: 1830. 1 : produced by growth from

superficial tissue <exogenous roots produced by leaves>. 2 a : caused by factors

(as food or a traumatic factor) or an agent (as a disease‐producing organism)

from outside the organism or system <exogenous obesity> <exogenous psychic

depression> <exogenous market fluctuations> b : introduced from or produced

outside the organism or system; specifically : not synthesized within the

organism or system. (Merriam‐Webster Dictionary)

xiii monad. Etymology: Late Latin monad‐, monas, from Greek, from monos.

Date: 1615. 1 a : unit, one b : atom 1 c : an elementary individual substance

which reflects the order of the world and from which material properties are

derived. 2 : a flagellated protozoan (as of the genus Monas). (Merriam‐Webster

Dictionary)

IMMANENCE CONCEPTUALIZED ARCHITECTURES & CHAOS

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