Versatility and Vicissitude: An Introduction to Performance in Morpho-Ecological Design

Abstract

The dictionary explanation of ‘performance’ is to ‘carry out an action’ or ‘to fulfil a task’. Invariably, this definition seems to invoke a tired utilitarian debate on the correlation between form and function. Here, Michael Hensel and Achim Menges explain how in this issue of AD they aim to move the debate on entirely. In so doing, they redefine form not as the shape of a material object alone, but as the multitude of effects, the milieu of conditions, modulations and microclimates that emanate from the exchange of an object with its specific environment – a dynamic relationship that is both perceived and interacted with by a subject. Performance evolves from the synthesis of this dynamic, while morpho-ecological design concerns an instrumental approach, making form and function less of a dualism and more of a synergy that aspires to integral design solutions and an alternative model for sustainability. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.