Morphologie

1970 — Constructive Geometry Exercises Student Work. A clean, unmarked book with a tight binding. 8"w x 10 3/8"h. 350 pages, plus annexe. Text in French. Black and white photos and illustrations. "An architect and engineer, David Georges Emmerich took the lead in France in the field of research on structural morphology, developed elsewhere by Robert Le Ricolais, Konrad Wachsmann and Buckminster Fuller. In the early 1950s he began exploring the laws underlying the development of architectural form through morphogenesis. He considered forms as self-organizing 'geometric beings in space' created according to their own laws, very much like structures in nature. Keenly aware of the issues and challenges of self-construction, growth and mobility, Emmerich aimed to blend architecture and engineering in a way that would allow for the creation of dwellings that were convertible, multi-purpose and organically expandable, thanks to possible combinations of standardized elements. His principles of self-construction were especially intended for emergency housing projects, which he went on to actually build with his students, notably in Morocco (1970). Emmerich?s structural research led to the development of radically new architectonic conformations which were light, and designed to totally disappear. These structures had a major impact on the inflatable architecture of the 1960s and 1970s. 'By increasing the number of facets, curves and other elements, we are pushing toward a limit: the one of immateriality' (D.G. Emmerich)." [Frac Centre-Val de Loire website]