The Genealogy of Iterative Growth

Over the last few decades, there have been many proposals for collective housing in which architectural forms have arisen from processes of infinite iteration. These designs put special emphasis on the concept of the element or basic unit, but also focus on the mechanisms by which these elements and units relate to one another and grow. This essay is an exploration of the historical precedents that inform these proposals, as well as a parallel comparison of the geometry behind infinitely iterative inhabitable cells and those strategies found in other creative disciplines, nature, and in the internal structures of compounds.