Morphogenesis and structural design: cellular automata representations of steel structures in tall buildings

This paper provides the initial results of a study on the application of generative cellular, automata-based representations in evolutionary structural design. First, recent developments in evolutionary design representations and an overview of cellular automata are presented. Next, a complex problem of topological design of steel structural systems in tall buildings is briefly described. Further, morphogenic evolutionary design is introduced and exemplified by cellular automata representations. The paper also reports the initial results of several structural design experiments whose objective was to determine feasibility of the proposed approach. Finally, initial research conclusions are provided.