This paper introduces and elaborates a specific approach to architectural design entitled ‘performance-oriented architecture’ based on a redefinition of the concept of ‘performance’ in relation to the discipline of architecture and set within a biological paradigm. The concept of ‘performance’ evolved out of a series of intellectual efforts that had broad consequences, brining about a paradigm shift in the humanities referred to as the ‘performative turn’. These efforts commenced in the 1940s and 1950s and had significant impact also on the sciences, deriving what is referred to as the ‘performative idiom’. Here the question is raised as to what ‘performance’ in the context of architecture may entail. The approach introduced con­trasts previous ones that focused either on questions of representation and meaning in architecture, or, alternatively that have treated performance as synonymous to function placed in the context of post-design functional optimisation. Contrasting these previous efforts performance is here reformulated as a driving concept for design that helps re-con­solidate form and function into a synergetic relation with the dynamics of natural, cultural and social environments, and in so doing, locate performative capacity - ‘ active agency’ -  in  the spatial and material organisation of architecture, in the human subject and the environ­ment through the dynamic interaction between these four domains. In pursuing this approach the potential of a close disciplinary affiliation between architecture and biology is examined, so as to locate a suitable paradigm for performance in the discipline of biology and its var­ious sub-disciplines, in its various foci and modes of inquiry, and, moreover, in biological syst­ems.

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Abstract. The recurrent issue of materializing a responsive architectural spatiality, emergent, in its conception Keywords. Control systems; real-time interactivity; bio-mimetics; embedded computation. UnderpinningsThe systemic prototype, developed as an electronic media augmented skin demonstrates an automated kinetic response with respect to parametric changes (Light, wind and ergonomics) concerning its immediate context. Such automaton is conceived via multidisciplinary studies in the field of natural systems immersed in open typologies, concerning phenomena of embedded control, communication, self-organization and self-renewal. The paper exemplifies the dynamism inherent in biotic systems, and applies the study of such complex systems through a synergetic merger of the fields of electronics, material technologies, embedded computation, control systems (for developing sensing and actuating properties) and Kinetic structures (for developing a dynamic skeletal framework with variable resolution: both interior and exterior structural frameworks). The designed system is an active contribution to the much-researched field of information driven, real time processing responsive architecture. The proposed prototype exemplifies information exchange by means of tactile variations of physical entities, generated as a resultant of human/environmental intervention. Tangibility is further manifested by integrating physical materials with the realm of digital, electronic and information media in order to create an interactive and responsive (real time) interface that can be used in architectural applications as innovative claddings and intelligent surfaces.

The growth of the library's tectonic envelope is driven by computational processes that derive the specific articulation of each tectonic element's dimensions, angle and orientation in response to recurrent analyses of structural, spatial and environmental parameters. The resulting structure synthesises form, load-bearing behaviour, microclimatic provisions and organisational capacity within the differentiation of the envelope. 'Morpho-Ecology' is a concept and design approach that combines the notion of 'morphology', and thus intrinsically 'morphogenesis', with the notion of 'ecology'. In the early 19th century, in the context of his studies in botany, the poet and writer Goethe defined morphology as the study of forms; he combined the study of 'Gestalt', or structured form, with the process of 'Bildung', or formation, which acts continuously upon form.1 Later on in the century, the term 'ecology' was coined by the German physician and zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who defined it as the science of relationships between organisms and their environment. 2 Here Michael Hensel and Achim Menges outline their theoretical and methodological framework for 'morpho-ecological design' in architecture, illustrating it further with two projects that combine research and design.The design proposal is based on ruled surface geometry articulated through thread rulings (top). The geometry is derived through an evolutionary process of generating and evaluating different types of ruled surface configurations over a large number of generations and individuals, of which 12 individual articulations are shown here (bottom).

In architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design, entangled multiscale and multidomain, or compound, sustainability problems and associated design requirements are becoming rapidly more demanding, complex, and interdisciplinary due to demographic, social, economic, environmental, and technological changes. This places considerable pressure on developing adequate pedagogical approaches to provide the next generation of architects, landscape architects, and urban designers with the knowledge, approaches, and skills to meet these challenges. This article discusses an attempt to develop an adequate pedagogy for a research-integrated master-level design studio along a multimethod approach. Key concepts, approaches, and methods are discussed, along with selected studio projects and a follow-up master thesis project. The projects are examined in terms of their responses to the themes, concepts, approaches, and methods of the pedagogical approach. Finally, further questions concerning the development of the portrayed pedagogical approach are discussed.