AN INTRODUCTION TO GENERATIVE SEQUENCES

Where A Pattern Language introduced the idea of using patterns to successfully build living structures,
generative sequences introduce a step-by-step building process to generate living structures, in a fashion
very similar to the way that genetic material or DNA generates the form of organisms.

The essence of all the material on this website, and our hope that we may be
able to influence landscape, cities, neighborhoods, buildings, building
structure, gardens, rooms, and details, all over the world, hinges on the idea of
a generative sequence.

A generative sequence may be thought of as a second generation pattern

language.

In A Pattern Language, published in 1977, the emphasis is on the patterns

themselvesthat is, on the content of the patterns. Although we intended that
the pattern language would be generative, that is, would allow people to
generate buildings and building designs, for themselvestruthfully, this does
not happen. The patterns provide many profound ideas, and geometrical
"nuggets": which are needed to make the environment work.

But, as written in 1977, they do not actually allow a person to generate a good
design, step by step. The do not place the emphasis on morphological
unfolding, as they should.

Yet in traditional society, the pattern languages which people had did place the
emphasis on morphological unfolding. With the help of the generative
sequences (or languages) that people had from their culture, they were able to
make beautiful and useful things, almost without thinking, because the
creative power lay in the generative structure of the languageand that lay in
the sequence in which the steps were to be performed.

The essence of the sequences which we shall introduce on this website, is that
they give people power, to make beautiful and workable designs. You do not
need to scratch your head. You just need to use the sequence in the right order,
and you will get good results.

This will have two big effects on the design of buildings:

1. An architect who uses such a sequence, can do better and more

beautiful work.

2. A lay person can make a design, at least in a simple form, where

previously it was assumed that only architects and engineers could
make designs.
For a person who has not thought very much about it, the idea of a generative
sequence might seem

1. Obvious

2. Not very interesting

After all, every recipe is a sequence of steps. Is a generative sequence

anything more than a series of steps like a recipe for cake or omelets.

It is.

There is one essential ingredient to the sequences, which is perhaps their most
salient feature, and which is also the feature that makes them work, and which
forms the foundation of the described methodology.

A sequence works, or does not work, according to the order of the steps in the
sequence. Some sequences allow unfolding, others do not allow it. For a given
task, the number of possible sequences is huge compared with the number of
sequences which work, that is by comparison, tiny. For example, if we have
24 steps, for generating a Japanese teahouse. There are 24! (approximately
1023) different possible sequences of 24 items, billions upon billions. The
number of successful sequences, or sequences which "work" for the same 24
items is very limited a few thousand at the most, which are all essentially
variants of the same underlying sequence. In short, there are less than .
00000001 percent of all possible sequences, which work.

It is not possible, at present, to give a precisely defined way of identifying the

sequences which work. That is to say, we do not yet know a mathematical
procedure which can identify the sequences which work. However, the
sequences which work can be identified , experimentally, by a fairly well
defined procedure. If one applies a sequence of steps to a given context, and if
one then observes the unfolding process, it is possible to ascertain,
unambiguously, whether the process engendered by this sequence at any time
contradicts itself. That means, we ask whether one is forced to backtrack,
because step B which comes at a certain point in the sequences forces one to
undo the results of a previously taken step A.

In this way, by doing experiments on test cases, it is possible to winnow out or

correct sequences, and essentially to eliminate all the bad ones, thus gradually
finding ones way to the good sequences, which have the property that no such
backtracking occurs as a project unfolds.

This property of being backtrack-free is the essence of what makes a

successful sequence.
It is very important to note that, for a given set of steps, such a backtrack-free
sequence is stable. Once discovered, the property of being backtrack-free
stays, and it is true for all contexts. Thus the backtrack-free sequences are the
essence of the theory of unfolding. Since the identification of backtrack-free
sequences can be made, experimentally, the property is objective and is
unambiguously defined by experiment (even though difficult to find,
experimentally).

The described methodology incorporates the idea that such backtrack-free

sequences exist, and includes all the particular realizations of backtrack-free
sequences for providing widespread user participation in the planning design
and construction of the built environment. The sequences can be made
available within the context of a business model that uses the internet for wide
dissemination and a combination of sequences, together with word based
questions and probes which bring user input into the end product with a
supporting imaging and design tool software. The generative sequences can be
combined with online tools which make it possible for the user to create the
design dynamically, step-by-step.

The business model can also provide for ancillary project management, and
access to local professionals who provide help, management, craft and
construction for a community, company or individual who has used the
sequences to lay out their own design.

This approach and business method is fundamentally different from previous

attempts to plan, design and construct buildings. The present methodology
provides for user participation in the planning design and construction of the
built environment in a manner which allows the organic growth of a design
through a sequence of generative steps.