Liminal Space

Could a model design a space that’s never quite open and never quite closed?

Role: Everything: the idea, the model, the drawings
Course: Generative Design, with Danil Nagy
Timeline: Spring 2019
Links: Video (external link)

Animated generated design: a hexagonal volume of pink cells, solids and voids shifting — **Fig. 1**One of the designs I kept, cycling through its solids and voids.

01Context

I kept thinking about in-between spaces, the ones that feel exposed one moment and sheltered the next, where light, air and what you can see keep changing as you move. I wanted to see if a model could make one, and whether it would surprise me.

02Approach

I started with an empty box and scattered points through it, split it into cells, and let the model choose which cells turned solid and which stayed open. Then I drew a path through the middle, so a person could actually move through it.

Five steps: empty volume, points, partitioned regions, solids and voids, refined for movement — **Fig. 2**How the model builds a space, from an empty box to cells shaped around someone walking through.

I gave it three things to want: enough solid to feel enclosed, enough open space to breathe, and a path that stays clear. They pull against each other, which was the point.

Three goals combining into an optimized design — **Fig. 3**Three goals pulling against each other, and where they landed.

Fifteen generated iterations of the model — **Fig. 4**A few of the many versions it tried.

03Outcome

Keeping the frame fixed held everything together, but it also limited how different the designs could get. So I spent a lot of time nudging parameters and running new generations to see what came out.

No design got everything it wanted. The ones I kept are the best compromises, and side by side they show the model working the trade-offs out.

Scatter plot of designs by voids and path intersections, next to eight selected designs — **Fig. 5**Every design it made, plotted by how open it is and how clear the path stays, and the eight I picked.

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Liminal Space

01Context

02Approach

03Outcome

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