Model Construction Workshop | Summer 2016

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Theme: material . force . form

Form is derived by forces acting on matter. The theme ‘material . force . form’ offers a research domain, where students can explore various materials and their physical properties as the generative drivers of design process. The workshop will internalize the theme of biomimetics as its core and the works produced in the scope of the workshop are expected to inherit properties from biological structures.

“As opposed to merely translating biomorphic patterns from biology to architecture, the transfer of knowledge happens on a systemic and performative level, through the recognition of patterns in the way that problems are solved in biology and in engineering. Consequently, biomimetics is seen as a strategy for architectural and structural design. The goal is to implement a biologically informed material system that draws equally from design principles in nature and from those in fabrication.”[1]

The three groups of students will focus on different characteristics of the radiolaria organism. In other words, the three groups will work on finding relations between architectural form and the same biological organism regarding its geometrical and structural interpretations. It is expected to see a multiplicity of such interpretations when inheriting the different properties of the organism, finally resulting in three different studies on construction techniques: self-assembly, tensile/membrane, and formwork.


[1] Achim Menges and Tobias Tchwinn, ‘Manufacturing Reciprocities’, Material Computation: Higher Integration in Morphogenetic Design, 2012.

Photograph Credentials: Hayri Dörtdivanoğlu