A Computable Vitality: Tange’s Architectural System For Skopje

Abstract

The 1960s movement of Metabolism in architecture utilized, albeit critically, biological concepts and models for the design of built environments. The architects of the group recognized architectural products as incomplete entities and with continuously changing elements similar to an evolving population of organisms. Their imagination led to the generation of new spatial systems and early forms of computational methodologies for architectural and urban design. Kenzo Tange’s model of “vitality” is a case in point and sets the core of a rule-based generative architectural system he developed for the Skopje plan.