Huh?
“The assumptions of population are diametrically opposed to those of the typologist. The populationist stresses the uniqueness of everything in the organic world. What is true for the human species, that no two individuals are alike, is equally true for all other species of animals and plants… All organisms and organic phenomena are composed of unique features and can be described collectively only in statistical terms. Individuals, or any kind of organic entities, form populations of which we can determine the arithmetic mean and the statistics of variation. Averages are merely statistical abstractions; only the individuals of which the populations are composed have any reality. the ultimate conclusions of the population thinker and the typologist are precisely the opposite. For the typologist, the type (eidos) is real and the variation an illusion, while for the populationist the type (average) is an abstraction and only the variation is real. No two ways of looking at nature could be more different. (Mayr, 1959b)”
Populations is the title of a design-research collaborative dedicated to the production of speculative urban and architectural machines/projects that explore the nexus of computation, biology, ecology, and design. Populations crystallizes its design process and theory around a deep concern for relational and ecological thinking, and situates itself in a broad manner of speaking within the problematics associated with the tensions between what are labeled “natural” and “cultural” networks. At a project level this is manifested in our strong interest in new infrastructuralisms, as these systems embody the collision of architectural, urban, and natural systems in an extremely potent and ubiquitous way. At a methodological level these interests manifest themselves in digital, material, and informatic form-finding tactics. The group’s name was inspired by the notion of “Population Thinking” and its possible exploration in ways never before possible through the use of computation. Simply put population thinking works from the specificities of the atoms/agents of a system in all thier numbers and varying parametrics to generate theory in a bottom-up process. Consequently, as a design collaborative we moor ourselves to the notion of allowing architectural/urban theory, design process, and form to be driven by the systems and agents under study themselves and their self-organized states.
David Newton is currently a full time Associate Professor at Arizona State University in the School of Architecture teaching studios as well as seminars with a focus on digital design and manufacturing processes. His work has been published by AD Magazine, the Architectural Association (AA). He has worked with the office of Diller Scofidio + Renfro in NYC, where his interests in issues of computation, ecology, and biology we’re further accentuated through his participation on The High Line Park project in NYC. dnewton@populationsdesign.org
Michael Robinson is currently a fulltime Adjunct Assistant Professor at Rice University’s School of Architecture where he teaches studios as well as seminars in computer aided design. mrobinson@populationsdesign.org
Jud Moore is currently practicing and has taught studios as well as seminars at the University of Montana’s School of Architecture. jmoore@populationsdesign.org