David Georges Emmerich (1925-1996) was an architect and an engineer. Together with Robert Le Ricolais and R. Buckminster Fuller, he was in France the main figure of the research on structural morphology in architecture. In 1958, Emmerich invented the concept of "tensegrity": tensing and compression counterbalance each other to form a light, auto-stable and permanent polyhedral configuration. It is the prelude to an architecture without foundations, jointed around the geometric combinatory analysis and its components.

The principle underlying tensegrity is that of morphogenesis: forms are "geometric beings in space" organized according to specific rules. Their auto-constitution leads to the principle of auto-construction and to the utopia of a society in which each individual would be able to build his own dwellings. Eventually, Emmerich's researches invite us to examine more closely their equivalence with the contemporary artistic practice, which is focused on minimal, modular and serial research on form.