Readers of these pages will know that I have been theorizing, calling for, and beginning to find design systems that build from our astonishing ability to see small and large biological forms. In a nutshell, my contention is that not only has the iron/industrial age passed, but the electronic age as well --- in terms of what is foregrounded in society and culture.

We are in the Biological age --- the genome and the functioning brain our in the foreground. Technology is . . . well, now part of "nature" . . . in the background.

Here's another clue.

Philosopher/architect Patrik Schumacher is championing what he contends is the Next Big Thing after the crisis of Modernism in architecture: Parametricism. Not surprisingly, he finds good examples of it in the firm with which he works,  Zaha Hadid architects.

Parametric design comes from the world of digital animation. An example is when two video game avatars are combined --- morphed --- on the fly to produce a new image. It's essentially a fast way of doing the zillion computations it takes to extrapolate forms along a developmental timeline.

Visually, Parametricism produces quite organic-looking, rounded, structures that adapt to terrain and existing streets in a way that looks like the friendly agglomerations of cells nestling among veins and arteries.

Schumacher sees Parametricism as apt for large-scale city planning, and I'd love to see it in that context. New visual modes generally have to start small, however, and I'd love to see more examples of individual buildings and small campuses using the look.