Emergence in Design

An identifiable design property which has not been explicitly represented can be said to be emergent. Discovering and using the emergent properties in design is regarded as emergence in design. Recognizing emergent phenomena is an important part of innovative or creative design and like innovation or creativity, it resists definition. Current research includes:

• models for shape algebraic representation which support feature emergence
• general issues of emergence in design, including functional emergence (joint work with University of Maryland)

AID '98 workshop on Emergence in Design