The fatal birth of architecture, the obligation of order

Overview & Synopsis

Creative processes in today architecture and design are often accompanied today by a complete set of assistance tools inspired by biomimetic heuristics. Based on processes that took billions of years to set up, some formalisms now allow us to quickly explore vast areas of solutions. For example, they are able to optimize the optimum of a function in a reasonable time when there is no exact method or when the constraints given at an input are antagonistic. When not in a logic of multi-criteria optimization, one can also look for, among the innumerable creative supports offered by geometry or mathematics, those that will be best able to accompany the designer during the initial phases of conceptual exploration. We could of course rely on purely combinatorial logics while being sure to find-among the infinite possibilities offered by a universe number for example (Π, √2…)-a solution to our problem but in temporalities that would go far beyond the life of the cosmos itself. Among the experiments conducted by the MAP-Aria laboratory for nearly 20 years, many have relied on bio-inspired heuristics, others have tested combinatorial logic-without much hope-and finally some combined the most recent advances in Computer Vision and shape recognition to try to understand the artist's gesture and the notion of reproducibility or ownership of an artwork. These crucial questions consider the essence of the creative process itself and search the remaining place of the human being in the reduced free space left by the "thinking machines" of today and tomorrow.