The hybrid building concept. Topological characterisation as a project resource

Abstract

The concept of biological hybridisation was first introduced by Aristotle, who theorised about the origin of certain animal species as a result of cross-breeding2. He also observed the tendency toward ‘hybrid sterility’, or the infertility of species as a consequence of genetic cross3. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the geneticists Kolreuter and Mendel laid the biological and mathematical foundations for the hybridisation of forms of life. Kolreuter also discovered ‘hybrid vigour’ or ‘heterosis’, defined as “[...] the tendency of cross-breeding to produce an animal or plant with a greater hardiness and capacity for growth than either of the parents.”4