Mick Geerits

Procedural Design for Diversity

Humankind seeks to control its environment, and so we have optimised our global, industrialised systems towards mass production and against diversity. From agriculture to engineering, these standardised monocultures have become commonplace, resulting in an inability to adapt and a vulnerability to system collapse.

Polycultured proposes Procedural Design, an algorithmic approach to design, as an alternative. By enabling systems to become more diverse, they become more resilient – moving towards a sustainable approach to optimisation. The project illustrates two strategies: Morphological Sensing and Symbiotic Structures.

Morphological Sensing explores agricultural monocultures. We design our landscapes to produce massive amounts of a single crop – ignoring local variation and increasing the risk of pests. Procedural design has been used to create shape-changing sensors, which allow farmers to customise the conditions on their fields and increase biodiversity.

Symbiotic Structures examines standardisation in artificial reefs. Here, procedural design responds to local conditions, creating bespoke geometries that become habitats for a wide variety of species.