Using Hardware Cellular Automata to Simulate Use in Adaptive Architecture

Abstract

In this paper we give an account of our development of a hardware machine-readable cellular automata model for simulating dynamic patterns of use and adaptation in vernacular high-density architecture. In a hypothetical architectural setting that draws its formal expression from illegal façade extensions in Hong Kong and its conceptual framework from the Open Building movement, we examine state evolutions in monotonous matrices of adaptable residential units. The primary objective is to gain a better understanding not only of architectural form but also of dynamic processes in the built environment and hence of the factors that cause adaptive architectures to tend towards different types of overall attractor states. The paper gives a discussion of the project’s theoretical background as well as a detailed description of the hardware model and its modes of application.