Co-evolutionary SystemsEsherick Chair Studio

University of California, BerkeleyFall, 2005

Instructor: Tom Wiscombe

Collaborators: Jess Field (Computation)

Derrick Roorda (Structures)

Studio Brief

Biological discovery has become the driver of a wave of innovation in many disciplines in this new century, similar to the way physics was at the turn of the last century. Biological organizations and dynamics, it turns out, are applicable to a huge range of social, political, mathematical, and economic fields, and in some cases have turned these fields on their heads. What biology reveals to us is how the world is not made of parts and ideas but rather of complex networks of material and energy in motion. It reveals the importance of the material behaviors underpinning social constructions of power, stratification, and heirarchy. Above all, biology reveals to us that all things are interdependent, and that the key to life and innovation in general is to be found in the logic of emergence, where wholes always exceed the sum of their parts.

Despite all of this, much contemporary architecture continues to be caught in the gravitational pull of the modern paradigm, where parts can be assembled in ever-ingenious ways, but can never be collapsed into something new and unexpected. In particular, architecture tends to assume a fundamental stratification of building systems such as structure, circulation, envelope, and mechanical systems. Breaking this habit of stratification in favor of simultaneity will be the point of departure for our work this semester.

This studio will concentrate on generating a wide spectrum of emergent behaviors and properties in architectural form by combining and exchanging the behavior of these building systems. Geometry will be our focus, not ideas or expressions. It will be the operative medium for producing connections and patternings of systems. Digital tools--and dynamics routines-- will be exploited for their ability to seamlessly integrate various parameters into complex wholes.

Key to this exploration will be exploiting the tension created by interweaving systems with different requirements and performances to create qualititative spatial effects. Homogeneity, ie. a total melting-together of systems and components will be avoided in favor of differentiated, performing, and increasingly coherent and beautiful solutions.

The format of the studio-- a teaching collaboration between Tom Wiscombe, Jess Field, and Derrick Roorda, S.E.-- will offer support in geometry, computation, engineering, and construction, with the express aim of pushing the limits of how design is understood, and forcing the integration of information and systems often excluded from the design process.

A Note on Co-evolutionCo-evolution in the natural world occurs when organisms benefit from an interaction to the point that they operate more successfully by giving up some of their own short-term interests. Co-evolution is more than symbiosis, where two or more species align in order to increase their own fitness. Species are co-evolutionary when they learn from one another across time, to the point that they begin to fluidly exchange behaviors in order to increase the combined fitness of the collective.

One example of co-evolution can be seen in the relationship between lions and hyenas in the African Savannah. The lions are generally assumed to be predators and the hyenas, scavengers, and the two species are also generally assumed to be enemies. Nevertheless, recent behavioral studies suggest that lions and hyenas constantly de- and re-territorialize one other by switching from predator to scavenger and back again. By doing this, they increase their combined resilience within their harsh environment. Conflict on one level dissolves into co-operation at another.

In architecture, building components and systems tend to be associated with exclusive behaviors. In this studio we will challenge that notion by actively transferring behaviors between systems. The goal is not necessarily to improve the perfor-mance of any one system, but rather to exploit the feedback itself in the creation of new architectures.

^ ^ ^

Methods Since this options studio is based on the principal of feedback, it will be necessary to produce many iterations of design proposals throughout the semester. These iterations will take the form of digital and physical models. Use of the computer is required, and students will be expected to ramp-up their skills quickly. To that end, Maya workshops will be held at the beginning of the semester. Large physical models (both hand-crafted and 3-D printed) will be the key to the studio, and therefore a sustained investment of time and energy will be required throughout the semester.

The format of the studio is OPEN SOURCE- ie. concepts/parameters/routines will be shared with the group with the inten-tion that they will be improved and integrated into other projects in novel ways.

The studio will be broken down into design sessions led by Tom Wiscombe, computation sessions led by Jess Field, and structures workshops led by Derrick Roorda, S.E..

ProductsThere will be two semester projects: a warm-up project and a final project.

The warm-up project is intended to help everyone acclimate to the principals of the studio as well as to 3-D modelling. It will begin with the exchange of behavior between 2 building systems such as structure and envelope or structure and cir-culation. The goal will be to use transformational geometry to both unify the competing sets of parameters and to create emergent behaviors. Building blocks will be lines, tube extrusions, surfaces, and volumes, operating according to specific constraints and degrees of motion.

This project will be presented in animations, screenshots, and small 3-D prints.

The final project will be a house in the tradition of modern prototype houses. This house will primarily be designed from the inside-out, where the integration of building systems, construction, and materiality will be the deciding factors. The mantra: geometry not ideas.

This house will have a simple program and potentially a simple site-condition in order to set limits. While these parameters will eventually influence the organization of the house, they should not destract from the primary study of systems and components in emergent networks.

This project will be presented in large-scale physical models at the Final Review.

Preview of DatesAUG 26 F TW/JF/DR Studio Lottery Read Deleuze: ‘The Rhizome‘, ‘Becoming-Intensities‘, Kelly: ‚Co-evolution‘AUG 29 M TW/JF Introduction to principles of the studio/ Begin Warm-up ProjectAUG 31 W TW/JF Diagrams SEP 2 F TW/JF Pin-Up: Warm-up ProjectSEP 3 Sa JF Maya ramp-up- Jess Field/ Desk critsSEP 5 M TW/JF Maya ramp-up- Jess Field/ Desk crits (Labor Day)SEP 7 W TW/JF Pin-Up: Warm-up Project

SEP 12 M JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsSEP 14 W JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsSEP 19 M JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsSEP 21 W JF geometry: maya/ physical models

SEP 26 M TW/JF Pin-Up: Warm-up Project SEP 28 W TW/JF/DR Engineering Workshop #1 SEP 30 F TW/JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsOCT 1 Sa TW/JF Charette for Review OCT 3 M TW/JF/DR/tbd Final Review Warm-Up ProjectOCT 10 M TW/JF Pin-up: House ProjectOCT 12 W TW/JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsOCT 14 F TW/JF Pin-up: House Project

OCT 17 M JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsOCT 19 W JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsOCT 24 M JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsOCT 26 W JF geometry: maya/ physical models

OCT 29 Sa TW/JF Pin-up: House ProjectOCT 31 M TW/JF/DR Engineering Workshop #2NOV 2 W TW/JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsNOV 4 F TW/JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsNOV 7 M TW/JF/DR/tbd MidreviewNOV 9 W TW/JF geometry: maya/ physical models

NOV 14 M JF geometry: maya/ physical models Begin 1:50 modelNOV 16 W JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsNOV 21 M JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsNOV 23 W JF geometry: maya/ physical models

NOV 25 F TW/JF Pin-up: Review 1:50 models Begin 1:25 modelNOV 28 M TW/JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsNOV 30 W TW/JF/DR Engineering Workshop #3DEC 2 F TW/JF geometry: maya/ physical modelsDEC 5 M TW/JF Charette for ReviewDEC 7 W TW/JF Charette for ReviewDEC 9 F TW/JF/DR/tbd Final Review (1:25 model)DEC 16 F - Deadline to deliver all work on CD to JF/TW

Studio ReadingsDeLanda, Manuel. ‚Material Complexity‘ in Digital Techtonics: Leach, Neil and Turnbull, David and Williams, Chris editors. (Wiley-Academy, London: 2004).

Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix. One Thousand Plateaus‚ trans. Brian Massumi, (Univ. of Minnesoota Press, London: 1987) ‚1914: One or Several Wolves‘ ‚The Rhizome‘ ‚Becoming-Intensities‘

Johnson, Steven. ‚EMERGENCE: The Connected Lives of Ants Brains and Cities‘ (Penguin Press, ) ‚Introduction‘ ‚The Myth of the Hive Queen‘ Kelly, Kevin. Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, (Perseus Books Group, Reading Mass.: 1994). ‚Co-evolution‘ ‚The Nine Laws of God‘

Kwinter, Sanford. ‚Landscapes of change: Boccioni‘s Stati d‘animo as a general Theory of Models‘, from Assemblage, Issue 19 (MIT Press, New York: 1992) .pp 51-65.

Kwinter, Sanford. ‚Flying the Bullet‘, from Rem Koolhaas: Conversations with Students (RIce University: Princeton Architectural Press: 1996).

Kipnis, Jeff. ‚INformation/ DEformation‘, Arch+, April 1996, no. 131, pp.66-71, 80-81.

Leach, Neil. ‚Swarm Techtonics‘ in Digital Techtonics: Leach, Neil and Turnbull, David and Williams, Chris editors. (Wiley-Academy, London: 2004).

Other ReadingsAllen, Stan. Points and lines: Diagrams + Projects for the City, (Princeton Architectural Press, New York: 1999). ‚From Object to Field‘ ‚Infrastructural Urbanism‘

Balmond, Cecil (with Jannuzi Smith). Informal, (Prestel, London: 2001)

Castells, Manuel. The Rise of the Network Society

DeLanda, Manuel. A Thousand Years of Non-linear History, (Zone Books: New York: 1997).

Deleuze, Gilles. The Fold: Liebnitz and The Baroque, (Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis: 1993) ‚Folds in the Soul‘ ‚The Two Floors‘ ‚The Pleats of Matter‘

Gladwell, Malcom. Blink, (Allen Lane Puublishing (Penguin), London: 2005).

Hensel, Michael and Menges, Achim and Weinstock, Michael. ‚Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies‘ in Architectural Design, Vol. 74, May/ June 2004 (John Wiley and Sons, London: 2004). ‚Emergence in Architecture‘ (EDG) ‚Types, Style, and Phylogenesis‘ (Moussavi and Zaera-polo) ‚Morpho-Ecologies: Approaching Complex Environments‘ (Menges) ‚Biodynamics‘ (Jeronimidis)

Hollands, John. Emergence: From Chaos to Order, (Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Mass.: 1998).

Kelly, Kevin. New Rules for the New Economy, (Penguin Group, New York: 1998).

Kipnis, Jeff. ‚Towards a New Architecture‘, in Folding in Architecture, AD, pp. 41-49.

Kwinter, Sanford. ‚The Hammer and the Song‘, from OASE Magazine, Holland. An interview.

Lynn, Greg. ‚Forms of Expression: the Proto-functional Potential of Diagrams in Architectural Design‘, in Folds, Bodies, and Blobs: The Collected Essays, (La Lettre Volee: Brussels: 1998).

Lynn, Greg. ‚Multiplicitous and Inorganic Bodies‘, AD, Nov.-Dec. 1993, v. 63, no. 11-12, pp.30-37.

Lynn, Greg. ‚Architectural Curvilinearity: The folded, The Pliant, and The Supple‘, AD, Mar.-Apr., 1993, v. 63, no. 3-4, pp. 8-15

Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm von. „Monadology“ trans.

Massumi, Brian. ‚Normality is Degree Zero of) Monstrosity‘, in A User‘s Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia, (Swerve Editions, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.: 1992)

van Berkel, Ben and Bos, Caroline. ‚Effects‘ and ‚Techniques‘ in Move, (UN STudio and Goose Press: The Netherlands: 1999).

Wiscombe, Tom. ‚Emergent Models of Practice‘, forthcoming in Perspecta: Yale Journal of Architecture, 2005.

Wiscombe, Tom. ‚Emergent Processes‘, forthcoming in OZ: Kansas State Journal of Architecture, 2005.