ABSTRACT
Morphogenesis, the biological process that enables an organism to take shape, has inspired a genre of architectural design research that leverages advances in computational design, fabrication technologies, and material systems to explore an architecture that is informed by performance. In this chapter, we will examine the intellectual antecedents and design precedents that led to the development of Digital Morphogenesis in architecture. Further, we will attempt to understand the legacy of this movement by exploring a series of projects produced by four boutique design practices that have been informed, inspired, and influenced by morphogenetic design in architecture. These projects illustrate how the influence of the original protagonists of this mode of thinking and working has served as a precedent for a generation that has brought the paradigms of computational design practice out of the academy and into the world of industry as a form of specialized (and spatialized) practice.
