XYZ Design | Biomorphis

XYZ Design, Edinburgh, is a series of computer-generated structures on human algorithm design collaboration. The project explores new forms of collaboration between human intuition and algorithmic logic.

Through public workshops and hands-on making with algorithm design, XYZ Design questions who holds authorship in the design process. It asks whether design follows rules set by machines, or whether people choose to disrupt them.

Concept & Intent

The project focuses on the relationship between power and making. Each structure begins as a set of instructions generated by a machine. These instructions guide participants through the assembly of small artefacts.

However, the process remains deliberately open. Participants can follow the algorithm exactly. Alternatively, they can bend, reinterpret, or reject its rules. As a result, each artefact becomes a negotiation between control and creativity.

Workshops & human algorithm design collaboration

Daily workshops form the core of the project. A machine prints out assembly instructions for groups of participants, who then work together to build a structure.

All artefacts use a single timber module type. The module interlocks with itself, enabling complex forms to emerge from simple rules. Meanwhile, collaboration becomes essential, as participants must discuss, decide, and act together.

Making with Timber & CNC Fabrication

The timber modules are CNC cut to ensure precision and repeatability. This controlled fabrication contrasts with the unpredictability of human assembly.

Because the system relies on one repeating element, complexity arises through sequence and choice rather than material variation. Therefore, the project highlights how systems thinking can coexist with hands-on making.

Power, Authorship & algorithm design

XYZ Design encourages human algorithm design collaboration & debate around authorship in a technological age. It questions whether designers should act as obedient executors of algorithmic output or as critical collaborators.

At a time when automation reshapes creative professions, the project reframes the role of the designer. Rather than replacing human agency, it exposes where choice still matters most.

Outcome

XYZ Design produces more than physical artefacts. It creates conversations. Participants leave with a deeper awareness of how rules, tools, and authority shape design outcomes.

Ultimately, the project positions collaboration — not control — as the future of meaningful design practice via human algorithm design collaboration.

XYZ timber structure, computational design workshop human algorithm design collaboration — XYZ timber structure, computational design workshop

XYZ timber structure, computational design workshop, furniture, human algorithm design collaboration — Parametric timber structure, computational design workshop, furniture & pavilion

XYZ timber structure, computational design instruction manual, human algorithm design collaboration — One of many timber structures, computational design instruction manual

Dezeen – computational and parametric design