Biological pattern based on reaction-diffusion mechanism employed as fabrication strategy for a shell structure

Abstract

This paper examines how generative architectural design processes aim to apply the principles of biological morphogenesis to the design and building of mechanical or architectural structures. Despite the revolution in computation aided design and interdisciplinary upgrades of digital fabrication technologies, design processes fail to acknowledge materials, tools and construction logic in an early design stage, as manifested in nature. The objective of this paper is to introduce a design workflow, based on the knowledge of the tool, material properties, design intuition and aesthetic criteria, to translate biological skin patterns to fabrication processes, incorporating three materials and procedures in a single parametric workflow. Mesh relaxation processes and weighted mesh graph representations are examined as design potentials for stripe organization in fabrication in analogy to numerical simulations of a reaction-diffusion (RD) mechanism. A thin shell and landscape emerge as a self-organizing system in equilibrium. The paper argues that skin patterns in fabrication open a new field for interdisciplinary investigation.

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