Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies

Map of the Potteries Thinkbelt showing main routes, transfer, faculty and housing areas. The map was reproduced in from New Society.

The Supercrit has been established by EXP – the new centre for experimental research in the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster in London – as a regular new forum for discussing architectural projects and ideas. Samantha Hardingham, a research fellow at the school and part of the EXP team, describes the ground-breaking Potteries Thinkbelt Supercrit#1 and the forthcoming LAWUN-Invisible UniverCity Supercrit#2.

Experimental projects are at the core of architecture’s thought and teaching. Used by its greatest practitioners to test and reinvent the way architecture is practised, they act as a laboratory of ideas for the building professions. EXP – the new architectural research centre at the University of Westminster – has been set up with the intention of running live projects, exhibitions, publications and debates, to support, disseminate, record and archive such work. The Supercrit series is at the centre of the programme. It invites architects and protagonists of key iconic and major ongoing projects to present their work for assessment and debate by a panel of international expert critics and an audience of students, practitioners ...