SWARM INTELLIGENCE
2011
ACADEMIC: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP
ROLAND SNOOKS
COMPUTATION/ SWARM BEHAVIOR/ GENERATIVE DESIGN
TEAM: MASSIMILIANO ORZI, TYLER JOHNSON,BRIAN BUCKNER, KURT RODRIGO
This project examines the role of agency within a generative design process by using computational methodologies grounded in swarm intelligence and casting a simple decision making ability into agents capable of self-organizing into an emergent intelligence. This semester long project focused on the technical code writing required to cast swarm systems and the architectural theory behind these systems. The project developed simulations of vector based swarm systems and then used these systems as a basis for developing an architectural design methodology which operates within a topological substrate. The second half of the project (moving from a two-dimensional environment to a three-dimensional environment) shifted away from simply mapping agents over time and instead became a system capable of negotiating architectural inputs.Computational design is shifting away from heavy systems (like Maya’s MEL scripting language) and into lighter weight object-oriented languages like Processing and Rhinoscript. This entire simulation was written in Processing, subdivided with a Rhinoscript, isosurfaced with Processing, and rendered with V-Ray for Rhino.