Toward a Living Architecture? Complexism and Biology in Generative Design (University of Minnesota Press, January 2019) by Department of Design Professor Christina Cogdell is the first book to make a critical study of the emerging field of generative architecture and its nexus with computation, biology, and complexity. She evaluates its scientific rhetoric and disjunction from actual scientific theory and practice. 

After finishing her second book Toward a Living Architecture? Complexism and Biology in Generative Design (2019), she is now researching and teaching facets of biodesign theory and practice. Since 2018, she has prepared student teams from UC Davis to compete in the Biodesign Challenge Competition. She works with living materials to teach students to think differently about design practice, life cycle analysis, and sustainability. 

View the book at University of Minnesota Press.