Differential growth in corals

Nature is a designer of at least 3.8 billion years old. From microorganisms to big mammals it is fascinating how nature takes the most out of the material available. This study explored a wide range of static structures in nature, in general, the lessons are that material is scarce and shape is abundant. In other words, nature optimizes shapes to save material while at the same time strengthening the structure, factors extremely interesting to architecture. We investigated everything about corals, from polyps the single unit of a coral to atolls, a ring-shaped island formation that emerges from many corals together.

We narrowed this research to Stony Corals, specifically on how it grows by a process called budding where its polyps duplicate. This research advanced in many computational design strategies. The final outcome is a Python code that implements an agent-based system, a finite element analysis, and machine learning support.