Abstract:
This paper argues for an ethics embedded in the largely digitally oriented field of research I refer
to as ‘processual architecture’, in terms of Francisco Varela’s notion of ethical expertise.
Processual architecture has been a prominent field of architectural research whose depth of
value and substance has eluded many. After the last 15 years or so of digital experimentation, it
is clear that digital technology in itself is not the primary issue, but simply part of an equation.
The ethical implications of this equation, I argue, can be found through the affinity between
Varela’s ethical expertise and an idea of the art of emergence. Emergence, a construct that
describes a contemporary version of the laws of nature, has been used with increasing
prominence in architecture in recent years.
