The Digital Pine Fruit: A Pomolomorphic Design Approach

Historically, building design has had different approaches like “Form follows Function”. Other approaches looked at nature for biomorphic design inspiration. In architecture, students struggle with being artistic and practical at the same time. It is essential to have those opposing views simultaneously, which results in schizophrenic thoughts, so educators must work on bringing the poetic and the pragmatic together. This paper is about using a pomolomorphic design approach in the design studio to generate form in architecture. The process contrasts two approaches to design: 1- Manual, using drafting and freehand sketching 2- Digital, using AI tools. Fruits were considered sources of inspiration while conceptualizing using freehand sketches proved invaluable in developing the designs. It bypassed the digital shortcuts of writing AI commands without the inherent thought of creation. It is important to use freehand drawing since it requires the students to be mentally engaged and analytically investigate forms.