A MANIFOLD DIGITAL
beyond individual generative techniques towards the larger conceptual implications of
operating through such techniques. This directs attention towards a general challenge in generative design practice in understanding which procedures exist within a hypothetical “pre-material” state that mobilizes a movement into material reality. Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lash formulate it thus:
“If architecture is an extended process of formation, then before ideas coalesce
into a definitive form there must exist some undifferentiated state free of any organization. The moment any sort of development is imposed onto this formless
matter it begins to enter the realm of substance, organization, and material.” (Aranda Lasch 2006, p.8)
A generative approach can be observed to constructs a design process around the idea of departing from a topological schema defining the relations of a non-representational organization. This organization is a virtual construct allowing a variety of actualised
structures. As an example of this conceptual framing the architect Lars Spuybroek
defines two main phases of a generative design process, “a convergent phase of selection and a divergent phase of design.” (Spuybroek 2004, p.8) The first phase relates to move-
ments within a virtual continuum, as something diagrammatic, where information
is collected, selected and mapped. The end product is a virtual machine, instantiat-
ing movement towards quality, order and organization. The second phase relates to movements of actualization in the form of quantity, matter and structure, where the diagrammatic becomes formative.
The first phase is defined by research and analysis. Spuybroek holds that “[…] for self-generative design techniques we need empirical research of existing forms” (Spuybroek 2004, p.10). Although the generative require a topological outset, in order to generate a design it is necessary to topologies type. For example, if we are to generatively
produce a tower design we would need to know about the topology of towers in gen-
eral. From here on one can start applying a specific organization to the system that mobilises elements and relations within the system, as a specific ’machine’. That is, the
elements themselves start to assume an agency. From this agency the second phase commences by driving the system towards a concrete architectural morphology.
“We need to construct body plans out of this research through analysis, then these
machines must process information (or difference) through a mobilization of its
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