icd.uni-stuttgart.de, Stuttgart

Material Computation
The lecture will introduce Achim Menges’ research focusing on computational design approaches that unfold morphological complexity and performative capacity without differentiating between form generation and materialisation processes.

Based on an understanding of material systems not as derivatives of standardized building systems and elements but rather as generative drivers in the design process this approach seeks to develop and employ computational techniques and digital fabrication technologies to unfold innate material capacity and specific latent gestalt. Extending the concept of material systems by embedding their material behaviour, geometric characteristics, manufacturing constraints and assembly logics within integral computational processes promotes an understanding of form, material and structure not as separate elements, but rather as complex interrelations in polymorphic systems resulting from the response to varied input and environmental influences and derived through the logics and constraints of advanced manufacturing processes.