Fractal patterns. Forms of Nature for project sustainability.

Abstract

Over the centuries, humanity has gone through various revolutions in data and information management that have increased, clarified or facilitated the evolution of knowledge. The Western world has evolved thanks to a succession of strategies developed to maximise the amount of information. The increasing computer performance has made the process of creating and transmitting data so fast and cheap to bring the information volume available to exceed a crucial threshold, leading to the advent of the so-called Big Data age. For the first time in human history, we have more data than we can handle. The discipline of drawing and representation is not exempt from this process. This density requires innovative methodologies necessary to structure the representations according to multiple scales and information supports. The computer does not understand the meanings, but unlike the human being, it can use this abnormal amount of unordered information to identify regularities. It then becomes possible to study natural phenomena and biological systems previously unassailable due to their complexity levels, to extract principles to be reproduced by digital processes in (eco)sustainable anthropogenic artefacts design. Computational design permits a high level of abstraction and more in-depth analysis that allows different disciplines hybridisation in designing artefacts whose properties are not only the result of formal, syntactic or linguistic issues, but they acquire living systems typical characteristics, such as the capacity to adapt, transform itself and self-organise. The knowledge and control of biomorphic patterns application promote project sustainability since nature always pursues the maximum efficiency of its systems. This paper presents experimental morphological studies aimed at realising artefacts with characteristics similar to natural systems.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.26.2021.6