Evolutionary Processes as Models for Exploratory Design

Biological evolution drives morphological diversity via genetic variation and results in a high level of adaptation, performance and resource efficiency. However, "biological design" arising from evolution is often counterintuitive- and unexpected in a non-linear way. Evolutionary processes are undirected and very good at exploring novel design possibilities in an open-ended manner. Biological evolution thus differs profoundly from the gradualistic and constantly converging character of technical optimization with defined and static fitness functions. Evolutionary algorithms based on Darwinian principles are mainly developed for solving multi-criteria problems in technology. Technical goals are defined as fitness functions and the evolutionary mechanisms of selection, heredity, reproduction and mutation are employed as stochastic optimization processes. These metaheuristic algorithms do not include recent insights into micro-and macroevolutionary mechanisms derived from genomics, phylogenomics and population genomics. Similar to natural evolution, the architectural design process is an open-ended process exploring possible solutions. However, in order to navigate this vast and dynamic design space, most design methodologies in architecture are based on a typological approach. The designers, based on their knowledge and understanding of the problems, usually limit the solution space to a particular structural, constructional, spatial or programmatic type that is iteratively adapted to the particular design requirements. The constraints inherent in typology-based design methodologies exclude a vast range of potentially more effective and better design variants. In contrast, the dynamics of biological evolution suggest ways of continuously expanding the design space towards new and unexplored possibilities, that can potentially in a new set of typologies that still satisfy the constraints. Thus, in architecture, evolutionary processes are more relevant as exploratory processes than as optimization tools.