Group Description

When Architecture, the Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing intermingle something beautiful and purposeful occurs. Students are challenged to think computationally by considering the notion of “design” through three perspectives on form and function. Through the first perspective, we challenge students to consider a structure’s architectural form in the context of its function within the ecology in which it belongs. A second perspective on form and function is provided by way of the natural sciences, where students explore nature’s designs, which are created through natural selection. Finally, form and function is further abstracted through a mathematical and computational perspective that focuses on how natural selection can be emulated through modelling and coding. The journey comes full circle, and the three perspectives coalesce, when students engage in a hack-a-thon in which they model and code evolutionary algorithms to design a better building.