Architectural Morphospace: Mapping Worlds of Built Forms

Philip Steadman and Linda J Mitchell
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Philip Steadman: Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, England
Linda J Mitchell: 31 Kersey Avenue, Great Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 ODZ, England

Environment and Planning B, 2010, vol. 37, issue 2, 197-220

Abstract: A method is proposed for plotting the plans of a large variety of rectangular built forms across a two-dimensional ‘morphospace’ of possibilities. The plans are enumerated by means of a technique of binary coding, such that similar shapes are grouped within distinct areas of this morphospace. Some applications to a geometrical history of building types are sketched, with examples from 19th-century pavilion hospitals, English elementary schools, and early New York skyscrapers. The purpose is to provide classification of built forms, to understand their interrelationships in a systematic way, and to see how building types have followed characteristic ‘morphological trajectories’ through this space of forms. It is a tool with which to approach the history of architecture from a geometrical point of view. It is not primarily conceived as an aid to design: nevertheless the paper concludes with some brief speculations about possible implications for design methods, using genetic algorithms.

Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:37:y:2010:i:2:p:197-220

DOI: 10.1068/b35102t

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