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Configurational Morphology
Jaka Korla

Configurational Morphology is an ongoing research project speculating on the future of urban and architectural form through the lens of configurational design coupled with the power of generative algorithms. At a time when formal qualities continue to dominate both the discourse as well as production of architecture, configurational design, with its capacity for abstraction, opens the possibility for a new, more systematic, approach to generating site-specific performance-based 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 as a design methodology, the project attempts to paint a comprehensive picture of how a configurational design process could be structured and what benefits it could bring. Through exploring its roots in vernacular architecture, its analytical capacity of socio-spatial patterns in existing cities, to its compatibility with advanced computational techniques enabling the generation of emergent urban form, the project employs speculative design as a tool for outlining the basis for such a design approach.

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 them returns local identity, the richness of spatial experiences, increased performance and sustainability, higher density, increased equality and much more. The result is a city of infinite opportunities; a city in which our social patterns, buildings, and the environment again become an indistinguishable whole adapted to contemporary urban life and fit for the future of our society.

Bio Jaka Korla is an architect and computational designer based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Ljubljana, Slovenia. After completing his Bachelor's degree at the University of Ljubljana and Master's degree at the Technical University of Delft, he now works at MVRDV NEXT, a think-tank focused on developing and implementing computational workflows and new technologies within architecture. Jaka's expertise and interests span multiple fields including architecture, urbanism, technology and computational design, with a specific focus on their interaction and potentials for realising the future city.

Softcover, 176x250mm, 464 pages.

Authors Jaka Korla
Location Rotterdam, The Netherlands