by Neal Leach What is the potential for applying digital simulation for research in urban planning and development? Neil Leach pursues this question with influential ‘street philosopher’, one-time programmer and professor Manuel DeLanda. Manuel DeLanda has exerted an enormous impact onarchitectural culture. For several years now the self-styled ‘street philosopher’ has been teaching at some of the world’s leading schools of architecture. He is the author of a number of highly influential books, including his critically acclaimed volume on urban growth patterns, A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History.1 However, he also has a background as a programmer, and has written numerous high-profile articles about architecture and digital design, such as ‘Deleuze and the Use of the Genetic Algorithm in Architecture’.2 It was therefore pertinent to ask him whether he has made any connections between his interest in digital simulation and his research into urban planning. ‘On one hand, some of the... - Wildcat