Analog Computing: The Morphogenesis of Structures as a Form of Fellowship with Non-Human Actors in Design Methods

Abstract

This article proposes a conceptual framework and outlines a methodological application to explore the relationship between the designer and a designed object. For this purpose, it uses the design experience of a lightweight structure in the context of an architecture festival. In the first place, the currents of contemporary thought that bring the non-human closer to the making of design decisions are recognized in order to subsequently identify a framework from which to read the material as something endowed with agency and provided with its own vitality. In order to present a methodology capable of taking charge of this approach, the text redefines the concepts of ‘morphogenesis’ and ‘autopoiesis’ so that they become useful for architecture design. The proposed method arises from the tensions and resonances between the theory and the application in the practical case described herein, and is conceptualized under the term analog computing.