Erik Majcher_Deleuze

DELEUZE AND THE USE OF THE GENETIC ALGORITHM IN ARCHITECTURE

Manual de Landa, Adjunct Associate Professor at Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University

De Landa discusses the use of genetic algorithms in architecture in relation to three forms of philosophical thinking; populational, intensive and topological. The first concept is that when considering genetic algorithms you must think in terms of the entire population of reproductions that are occurring, not just the individual generators or a specific outcome. The second is that when an object is divided there are measurable quantities that are also divided such as area and weight, but there are also some characteristics which are not divided, such as pressure or temperature. These latter characteristics are “intensive” characteristics, which are the critical traits that must be passed from generation to generation. Finally is the concept of topological thinking, which means the architect must consider an abstract geometry that can be twisted and bent without breaking, in order to develop a significant population of offspring.

Yas Hotel, Abu Dhabi, Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture + Arup

http://www.contemporist.com/2009/12/01/the-yas-hotel/

The concept of intensive features is an important way of thinking. The process of distilling architecture into those types of features, which can't be divisible or scale-able is an interesting exercise which seems to be worth further exploration and analysis.