Programmed form generation in design

Abstract

This article distinguishes design research that is concerned with further developments of existing formal systems from fundamental research in technical or geometrical fields that is capable of opening up new form-generating programmes. A historical discussion includes analysis of an early series of 'spatial compositions' by the pioneer Soviet Constructivist artist and designer Aleksandr Rodchenko. The general character of serial form is discussed, and its relationship to the concept and the transmission of 'style'. Reference is also made to work by the nineteenth-century Russian mathematician P L Chebyshev, the American designer George Nelson, and the pioneer of Soviet Rationalist architectural theory in the 1920s, Vladimir Krinskii. Illustrations include the Rodchenko works discussed, and examples drawn from the author's own research, his public commissions, and his devices for developing spatial and combinatorial thinking amongst architecture students.