Color-Patterns to Architecture Conversion through Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks

Biomimetics (Basel). 2021 Feb 17;6(1):16. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics6010016.

Abstract

Often an apparent complex reality can be extrapolated into certain patterns that in turn are evidenced in natural behaviors (whether biological, chemical or physical). The Architecture Design field has manifested these patterns as a conscious (inspired designs) or unconscious manner (emerging organizations). If such patterns exist and can be recognized, can we therefore use them as genotypic DNA? Can we be capable of generating a phenotypic architecture that is manifestly more complex than the original pattern? Recent developments in the field of Evo-Devo around gene regulators patterns or the explosive development of Machine Learning tools could be combined to set the basis for developing new, disruptive workflows for both design and analysis. This study will test the feasibility of using conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (cGANs) as a tool for coding architecture into color pattern-based images and translating them into 2D architectural representations. A series of scaled tests are performed to check the feasibility of the hypothesis. A second test assesses the flexibility of the trained neural networks against cases outside the database.

Keywords: architecture; artificial intelligence; cGANs; generative; machine learning; neuronal networks; patterns.