"Buildings whose walls and ceilings grow with their own flesh and skin . . . including shining heating coming through the veins delivering the oxygen necessary for breathing."-Alberto T. Estévez
Genetic Architectures provides a bilingual (English / Spanish) manifesto and anthology demonstrating the -theory, pedagogy and practical experiments of the Genetic Architecture Program at Barcelona's International University of Catalunya.
Founded in 2000, this unique program focuses on ecological-environmental architecture and design based on biomimetics, digital visualization and machine manufacture. Going beyond the use of computers as mere substitutes for conventional architectural production, Genetic Architecture conceives and visualizes whole projects digitally, beginning with botanic and other natural sources, then building maquettes and architectural elements, without human intervention, directly from software files fed into the school's Thermojet 3D Solid Objects Printer or the CAD/CAM milling machine. New visions of architecture materialize when ecological-environmental and advanced visualization merge in the media itself. This architecture is not merely visual or virtual: it is real.
Six sections take the reader through the history and development of Genetic Architecture as a theory and an instructional method. Among the other topics, all richly illustrated, the book's contributors touch on ecology and construction, biomimetic development of forms, digital visualization and machine production. Contributors include Alberto T. Estévez, Alfons Puigarnau, Ignasi Pérez Arnal, Dennis Dollens, Alfonso Pérez-Mendez, Joaquim Ruiz Millet and Ana Planella.
Dennis Dollens is the author and editor of six books about digital architecture and design, including D2A-Digital to Analog, Exodesic, and The TumbleTruss Project. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and teaches in the genetic architecture program in Barcelona.
Ignasi Pérez Arnal is an architect specializing in environmentally and technically advanced building and consulting. A frequent contributor to international journals, he serves as associate director of the School of Architecture at the International University of Catalunya.
