"The cover title of this issue, Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design, provides it with a very wide frame: morphogenesis pertains not only to the development of form and structure in an organism, but also to an organism's evolutionary development over time. It is, in effect, a substantial signpost that in a broad brushstroke takes in the whole gamut of natural systems, both current and in evolution. It is indicative of the not inconsiderable, some might say infinite, project that guest-editors Michael Hensel, Achim Menges and Michael Weinstock have taken on through their activities in the Emergence and Design Group and their teaching and research at the Architectural Association (AA) in London. By studying the complex and dynamic exchange between organisms and their environment, they have sought out a new model for architecture–one that through the application of biochemical processes and the functionality of life is in empathy rather than at odds with natural ecology. By keeping their eye on this higher goal, the group is providing a prescient new ecological paradigm for architecture that seeks, through new scientific advances in the visualisation and understanding of natural processes and systems, to leave behind the known structural and material building blocks of architecture."
"What the generic quality of the 'morphogenetic design' tag belies is the specificity and focus that Hensel, Menges and Weinstock have brought to their subject in this volume. This issue is the sequel to AD Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies, published two years ago. It is, however, no Emergence II. Whereas in the first issue, the potential of the project was broadly being asserted through an understanding of what emergence could bring to architecture [emergence insinuating the complexity that is acquired through the evolution of organisms over time, where the sum is more than the parts], the stress on self-organisation in this issue isolates a particular aspect. The content spirals outwards, as outlined by Hensel in his introduction opposite, clarifying first what self-organisation can mean in the natural world and then discussing its application for material sciences and engineering. There is also further investigation of morphogenetic techniques and technologies, as illustrated by the group's own research and the network they have built up among fellow-minded practitioners in aligning disciplines. While the group's approach is becoming more established and they are boring down effectively into it, their influence is also widening. All three proponents are regularly invited to teach in venerable institutions abroad, with Menges having recently been awarded a professorship of form generation and materialisation in Germany. In 2004, the focus of the group's activities was largely concentrated in the recent establishment of the Masters programme at the AA, but two years later its first few years of graduates are working and spreading the word as practitioners in key firms and other international institutions are buying into this approach and recognising its inherent potential."
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