Modelling and Materialization Unit
2025/2026
Student Work
Digital Morphogenesis is the final project of the Modelling and Materialization curricular unit of the Master's in Design and Multimedia.
The course introduces and explores the use of computational design tools within a creative process, focusing on the development of design artefacts with added aesthetic value. The project invites students to investigate the expressive and constructive potential emerging from the relationship between form, material, and a specific digital fabrication process.
Through the use of parametric modelling tools and generative design methods, students are challenged to explore how the logic of a digital fabrication technique—its characteristics, possibilities, and constraints—can become an active component of the design process. Through experimentation, the project aims to develop a critical understanding of the relationship between digital design and its physical materialization.
The 2025–2026 edition of the project focused on ceramic 3D printing, proposing the design of a vase through the exploration of parametric and generative algorithms for the creation of form and surface texture.
This work was part of an ongoing collaboration between the Department of Architecture (DARQ-UC) and the Technological Center of Ceramic and Glass (CTCV). A selection of the developed projects were printed at the facilities of CTCV, at iPark, Coimbra.