The new ability to generate mathematic algorithm-based design via computer, and then 3D model them in real space, is – as most people have probably noticed – rapidly producing a new generation of art, design and architectural structures. Here’s a small sample, from here via here. Most of the algorithms that designers and architects are using are mathematical descriptions of very familiar natural processes and structures: the physics of the birth of snowflakes; algorithms that describe genetic processes, bird flocking behaviours, petal structures or branching patterns, etc. Above, algorithmic architecture by Michael Hansmeyer. Below, models of crystal structures by Benjamin Aranda & Chris Lasch.
Harvard Architecture professor Joe MacDonald has produced a number of celebrated and prize-winning algorithm-based design and architectural projects, including Water Planet at the Steinhart Aquarium, California Academy of Sciences and The Bone Wall, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, NY, 2006, below.
Below, “polygonic structure” by theverymany. And there are many more. This new breed of algorithm-based design is becoming more and more practical to generate, and we will inevitably be seeing a lot more of it, particularly in furniture, interior design and architecture. It has also been showing up in jewelry for some time. Not only do many of the new structures have both a pleasing marriage of simplicity and complexity, they often also have, not surprisingly, the advantage of structural rigidity – nature built them that way for a reason.
