Reducing human stress has become a critical issue in contemporary architecture. The design of the physical environment plays an important role in the ease of wayfinding as people navigate a path through their surroundings. The goal of this project is to create an automated system that can analyze human behavior within a building, generate architectural forms based on the results, and then fabricate an optimal interior space design for facilitating the observed behaviors. The Behavioral Mapping Parametric Knitter (BMPK) juxtaposes key characteristics of biological design (modularity, robustness, homeostasis, and adaptation) with smart technologies.

 

The BMPK Robot is an aggregated system that observes human behaviors, analyzes this behavioral data, designs parametric patterns, and then weaves spatial designs. The robot extracts data about complex human behaviors using intelligent sensors embedded within the environment. Knowledge extracted from this behavioral data is then used to design a parametric pattern. Finally, the robot employs this pattern to determine an optimal space structure to make the observed human behaviors as easy as possible. The spatial designs produced by the BMPK Robot are thus intended to help optimize the dynamic human behaviors that are already observed within the built environment. The results from this research project will lead to reduced stress and improved wayfinding among end-users. In addition, the research will produce a design tool capable of measuring the performance of different architectural forms in regard to how well they facilitate human behavior.