Essay

Algorithmic Design for Sensemaking

In the image above, you can see how beautiful and revealing the implementation of algorithmic processes can be. To help you better understand what is going on in the above image, here is the author’s explanation about the mysterious and beautiful form patterns. It is curiously and simply called “Happy Place:

“256 nodes with friendships to other nodes tied together using the following rules: get as close to friends as possible, and get away from everyone else. Drawing lines between friends the above image is generated (unique with each execution).” (see source here)

When you combine the power of understanding occupant and human relations and behavioral patterns with the dynamics and fluidity that computational design can bring, you have quite a unique coupling that can unleash not only an adaptive architecture but also a highly customized and optimized one — algorithmic architecture.

Algorithmic architecture is about more than creating a three-dimensional “map” or “visualization” of real-time activity. It brings with it a sense-making ability that ties computer language and algorithms together. Suddenly, buildings are at once gaining incredible scalability and permutability, which as always, leaves it up to the designer as to how to set the language which interprets the algorithms. Thus, design is still in the hands of the designer.

How Would You Make Algorithmic Architecture Work for You?

Just imagine if you could take a building and watch it grow. As the designer, what “rules” would you have your building follow? How would you try to optimize its function? And its beauty?

With algorithmic architecture, it seems to me that we can build and envision entirely new ways to make built environments not only happier but healthier for those that inhabit them, by tweaking certain key inputs or processes to generate some pretty amazing environmental built forms.

Similar to the rendering above which illustrates the “friendship” behaviors between “nodes”, you could use algorithms to generate designs that grow from the behaviors of your occupants and their surrounding contexts. You, as an architect, would design a new kind of “occupant-centered” architecture — generated from your own language which sets these rules and interprets them.

So tell me, how would you use algorithmic architecture if you could solve the biggest challenge in your design today. How would you want to optimize your buildings, tap into relationships that are happening between its pieces and parts or even interact with your occupants in entirely new ways?

‍Image Credit: jared | Flickr