Bio

Machi Zawidzki is currently in a doctoral program, under a MEXT scholarship, in integrated science and engineering at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. His thesis is “Application of Computational Intelligence Methods in Selected Geometrical Problems of Architecture.” Prior to that, he took a PhD course at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Department of Eco-building Engineering, where his major field of study was optimal design and sustainable architecture with a specialization in daylighting and solar systems. He has a master’s degree and an engineer’s degree from the Warsaw University of Technology in architecture and town planning, with a dissertation on urban revitalization of Detroit (“Detroit the Ideal City”).

Project: 2D CA on a Triangulation

The project will study 2D cellular automata on a triangular lattice with a possible implementation for architecture. The idea is to create a structural skin based on triangles, with each module being a cell of a cellular automaton (CA). The behavior of CAs on triangular lattices is very interesting and not studied as much as on a rectangular grid. Additionally, any surface can be triangulated (e.g. using Delaunay triangulation) and does not have to be regular. This allows creation of a three-dimensional skin structure that can be at least self-supportive and possibly even load-bearing. As the number of neighboring cells is 3, with the cell itself there are 2⁴=16 possible combinations of states, and consequently 2¹⁶=65,536 elementary “triangular” rules and 2⁸=256 “outer totalistic” rules.

Project-Related Demonstration

2D Triangular Cellular Automata on a Distorted Grid with Holes

2D 2C R1 Cellular Automaton on a Triangular Grid

Favorite Three-Color Cellular Automaton

Rule 69738168204