Algorithmic Plant Communities: Parametric & Agent-Based Workflows
By Judy Venonsky, Associate at OLIN & Eco Lab Leader
There is a growing awareness of the importance of the herbaceous layer in planting design. Herbaceous groundcover is a key component in creating and maintaining soil structure, and ground level biomass strongly influences the hydrologic properties of the site including infiltration, runoff, and erosion.
Agent-Based Herbaceous Plant Community Design
Eco Lab is in the process of designing a research proposal to study the resilience and aesthetic outcomes of differently designed mutualistic plant communities including their structure, composition, temporal dynamics and economic implications in public landscapes.
Plant Agents - a self-organizing algorithmic planting plan based on environmental factors and design objectives.
This research is happening in parallel to efforts to create an adaptable database of native and naturalized plants and their physiological characteristics. This data set will empower future research and development using algorithms to design communities of plants with the most likelihood of persisting and spontaneously evolving into healthy ecosystems.
