Generic City - a prototype for a generative city

Here are some screen shots from a prototype of the generative city. I am calling it Generic City, because it is not yet an architecture of remixed geometry - it simply is random geometry that has a likeness to city streets, lane ways, squares and courtyards and so recalls the Nolli Plan of public space in Rome.

Generic City A4

Generic City A4

Generic City A4

This prototype uses the Eden Growth Model, and is adapted from my previous Circle Packing Eden Series - see Exploration A, Exploration B, Exploration C and Exploration D.

There version is beginning to exhibit some nice variation, and drawn in grey there is a memory of previous states - blocks that have been redeveloped or which are now abandoned (the cells have died). However, unfortunately, when the cell dies the streets are disconnected too - so it would be better to not have cells die, but rather to have abandoned blocks drawn as blanks. It is a work in progress!

Ideas for potential further work include:

• getting each block (cell) to remember what is built there (ie what shape it is), so that redevelopment (transformation) decisions can be informed by what it is currently and what its neighbours are
• incorporating the geometric logic of Cameron Offices - pedestrian streets, long landscape courtyards and narrow offices with access to light and landscape
• allowing cells to have multiple children and parents, so that the street (branch) network which draws between parent and child can have multiple connections and not be so labyrinth in nature
• determining if necessary how to avoid windows - set growth directions or set no go zones?  no go zones are conceptually water bodies or mountains where it is impossible to build.
• considering conditions for transformation  - is there a logic of redevelopment? is it just when a block (cell) reaches a certain age?
• considering growth starting points, should they be random, in corners or on edges, and can there be multiple?
• considering if it can be interactive - can a sound event trigger a new city to start growing, speed up the rate of growth and redevelopment or even change the geometric logic?