who else is working on emergence and architecture?

the bartlett (at university college london): MSc adaptive architecture and computation

The MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation aims to give students a comprehensive understanding of the practical skills required to create generative, emergent and responsive forms, through exposure to real programming environments. In order to achieve this goal, the course team comprises both architects and experts in artificial intelligence. Programming is taught through the Processing language, which was created to teach computation to designers with no prior experience of computing. Time is dedicated to studio sessions with experienced tutors who have a track record of research into architecture and computation.

Alongside the practical classes, the MSc AAC offers a unique theoretical framework. We believe that the true power of the computational methodology is only realised through an understanding of its interaction with the social, environmental and spatial context in which it operates. To this end, the course team are embedded within UCL Bartlett's 5*-rated SPACE research group, which specialises in, and originated, the field of space syntax. Two lecture series present both the process side of the generation of environments, as well as the social implications of the product. Lectures from the course team are balanced by guest lecturers from the forefront of practice and research. The central theme of the lectures is one of how to create embedded, embodied and adaptive design. That is, design that couples the relationship of spatial configuration and society to the computational ability to analyse and respond to the environment.

design that couples the relationship of spatial configuration and society to the computational ability to analyse and respond to the environment (this is great!) embodied embedded cognition - intelligent behavior emerges out of the interpay between brain, body and world processing 1.0

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

MIT Media Lab

Object-Based Media How to create communication systems that gain an understanding of the content they carry and use it to make richer connections among users. Computing Culture How artists and engineers can refigure technology for the full range of human experience. Changing Places How new technology and strategies for design can make possible dynamic, evolving places that respond to the complexities of life. Viral Communications How to construct agile, scalable, collaborative systems. Society of Mind How various phenomena of mind emerge from the interactions among many kinds of highly evolved brain mechanisms. Smart Cities How buildings and cities can become more intelligently responsive to the needs and desires of their inhabitants. Human Dynamics How social networks can influence our lives in business, health, and governance, as well as technology adoption and diffusion.

architectural association school of architecture: emergent technologies and design http://www.emtechlog.net/

core studio The core studio begins with an intensive period of knowledge and skill-building sessions. Studio discussions focus on concepts such as morphogenesis, emergence and self-organisation, while a first module focuses on skills in Rhino NURBS modelling and scripting. This is followed by the introduction to material self-organisation and form-finding as design methods that lead to performance-oriented design. This year the studio will focus on vector-active and form-active structural systems, culminating in the design, detailing and construction of two structures. Before the design charrette begins, an intense module introduces concepts and methods of analysis and simulation. The designs are then further elaborated in the manufacturing and assembly module, which emphasises the relevance to low-tech (construction) contexts of the designs evolving from the research of the Emtech programme. The characteristics and behaviour of materials, together with manufacturing and assembly logics and the behaviour and performance of the designed system, are key elements of the integral design approach introduced in the core studio. This strategy deploys the inherent properties and behaviour of materials in material assemblies that respond to the specific stimuli of their context. Modelling and analysis of natural and manufactured systems are introduced to provide the techniques necessary for the development of morphological complexity and performance in designs for the built environment.

emergence and design ‘Emergent’ is defined as that which is produced by multiple causes, but which cannot be said to be the sum of their individual effects. It has been an important concept in biology and mathematics, in artificial intelligence, information theory and computer science, and in the newer domains of weather and climatic studies, the material sciences, and in particular biomimetic engineering. Commonplace terms such as ‘self-organising structures’ and ‘bottom-up systems’ have their origin in the science of emergence, and are encountered in fields as disparate as economics and urbanism. The seminar course will commence with a survey of the origins of the science and technologies associated with emergence, commencing with D’Arcy Thompson and Alfred North Whitehead, through Turing’s work on cryptographic analysis and on the mathematics of biological development, to the development of evolutionary algorithms. The conceptual structures and philosophies of Emergence in Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life will be reviewed, and the course will conclude with a series of digital experiments in algorithmic design.