Configurational Morphology is a research and design project exploring the potentials of configurational design as a systematic approach to generating site-specific urban form responsive to its environmental, social end economic context. By looking into both the theoretical potentials of configurational thinking as well as its practical application in the form of design experiments, the project manages to paint a comprehensive picture of how a configurational design process could be structured and what benefits it could bring. From its historical precedents and roots in vernacular architecture, through its analytical capacity to abstract and visualise the socio-spatial patterns of existing cities, its applicability as a digital design interface mediating between humans and machines, its compatibility with advanced computational techniques to finally its ability to generate bottom-up adaptive urban form, the experiments reinforce the idea that such a design approach could indeed be possible as well as feasible. Throughout, an underlying theme guides the project; a vision of the future city in which generic cookie-cutter urban fabric is replaced by customised adaptive urban forms of tremendous diversity. With it returns local identity, the richness of spatial experiences, increased performance and sustainability, higher density, increased equality and much more. Simultaneously, traditional socio-spatial structures are deconstructed and can be translated to other previously unimaginable forms such as a high-rise row house or a slab functioning as a courtyard block offering completely new possibilities for urban living. The result is a city of infinite opportunities; a city in which our social patterns, buildings, the environment and the urban fabric again become an indistinguishable whole adapted to contemporary urban life and fit for the future of our society.

Imagening a non-stop mixing living environment of co-housing and public program.

The graduation project investigates what makes a housing block and designs a tool, that can generate and evaluate the block informed by a predefined scenario. In my case a block in which places for human and animal species are equally negotiated. After a time of rapid urbanization leading to a devastating segregation from nature, humans need to develop symbiotic approach of sharing environment with the wildlife and our-life. Because of modern agricultural techniques, pesticides, monoculture and habitat loss, population of some species has dropped drastically. The graduation project investigates innovative ways in which urban design can attract and increase diversity of species.

As obesity levels increase out cities need to be able to adapt to this. What if we would live in a city that promotes living in a calorie intensive environment? This research and design investigates the possibility of combining dwelling and calorie burning. By means of changing access, the dwelling and adding a sports programme a housing block is transformed into a sportsblock.

The Why Factory Graduation Studio 2016-2017 explores the theme of (y)our world, (y)our block, (y)our house. We developed a theoretical model, a ‘software’ called "The Blockmaker". It considers a building as a collection of layers, such as users, construction, accessibility and programme. On every layer, you have a lot of possibilities and options to choose from. Also, a decision made on the one layer, can influence the other. For two or three layers that is not hard to understand and oversee, but it can hit complexity very fast. The Blockmaker software helps to choose from the options on every layer by offering direct feedback for every choice. It analyzes and evaluates every option by qualitative criteria you can set yourself. For our individual work, we use the Blockmaker to design a housing block, but we add an extra ‘filter’: a theme linked to a future scenario. In my case that is water: the Hydroblock. It stores energy by making use of the potential energy of water at a certain height, it contains a water treatment system, a shading system based on water flows and waterfalls are running down through the whole block.

The Why Factory’s research design studio operates on the exchange of collective work and individual project. Implementing from the studio’s common framework, The Blockmaker, the studio’s research explores the notion of what makes a housing block? Through data to design approach and parametric software thinking, the Blockmaker is a research software that allows one to generate multiple design solutions by transforming mass, reconfiguration of programs, accessibilities, porosity and generating options for façade and structure responsively to a climate condition.

My research question speculates on a scenario where a housing block would be self-sufficient with solar energy. How would it look like? How would it performs for power generation and at the same time generate better housing qualities for views, daylight and terraces? Can it create better qualities for a dwelling? In this studio, we add one parameter to observe the changes in our design intervention. In my case, for a block to be self-sufficient with solar panels, a parameter of energy demands with solar panel surfaces would be a primary aspect to consider. However, to make a housing block, it requires multiple parameters of housing qualities to finalise an optimised design decision.