SwitchNets

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND
SwitchNets is a digital architectural design project by Paul Minifie and Jan Van Schaik (principals of Minifie Nixon Architects). It was exhibited at (Im)material Processes: New Digital Techniques for Architecture, at the Beijing Architecture Biennial.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION
SwitchNets is part of Minifie and Van Schaik's ongoing research into Emergent Architecture. Emergence is the study of simple rule-based systems that generate complex phenomena as outcomes. Emergent Architecture applies this methodology to the study of buildings and cities, to understand aspects of architectural design process, city growth and morphology. SwitchNets explored an emergent design methodology that combined the well-known results of cellular automata, but instead of employing it on a grid, the rules-based system functioned across a general spatial graph. The project further tested the development of converging series that is, emergence to lead towards a stable rather than continually changing outcome. Overall the project speculated and tested a potentially new set of techniques for architecture and urban design.

RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
The significance of this work is evidenced by its international selection for exhibition at the 2008 Beijing Biennale of Architecture that showcased new digital design and fabrication technologies. Curated by prominent architects Neil Leach and Kokkugia, the project was exhibited alongside the work of fifty-six leading architectural practices and twenty-six architectural schools. The project was published in the accompanying exhibition catalogue.