Hacking design: novelty and diachronic emergence.

Abstract

The concept of emergence has had a significant effect on architectural theory, instigating a paradigmatic change in design and affecting the way buildings are perceived. In practice the practicalities of building procurement to satisfy necessity renders engagement with the concept largely academic. Otherwise, the physical properties of a building tend to limit engagement with emergence at the synchronic level. In this paper we consider how we might engage with the creative capacity of emergence at the diachronic level. As an artificial system a building may be perceived at different scales. Through computation we can conceive a systemic whole, which we may hack to explore the spatio-temporal capacities of the system, bending and leveraging behaviour in order to discover new tendencies of space and form.