Voronoi City is the title of a recent software experiment by Santiago Ortiz which puts the user at the helm of an urban ecosystem rendered in vector graphics. The application utilizes Papervision3D a custom 3D engine to delineate a reflexive, almost parametric cluster of structures. The namesake of the piece speaks to the voronoi diagram from which this system calculates its spatial organization. A voronoi diagram can be concisely defined as "The partitioning of a plane with n points into convex polygons such that each polygon contains exactly one generating point and every point in a given polygon is closer to its generating point than to any other". Sound complicated? It is actually quite simple and the piece can be considered as an exercise in minimalism. Santiago described his goals for the project as to "construct a city using as little information as possible".

The best way to get a feel for Voronoi City is to engage it, operate it - play with it. As evidenced above, the interface uses a plan view of the diagram and denotes each polygon and control point. These points can be dragged around and in doings so the associated polygon slides around the diagram while the adjacent profiles and entire system reconfigure their orientation in real time. While adjusting these parameters the user is also able to rotate and shift their view and the overall experience is similar to using a retro level editor. This level of functionality is somewhat unremarkable but what caught my attention about the piece was the fact that there are extrusions associated with some of these polygons - a formula has been developed to calculate varying heights for this cluster of volumes based off the source diagram. What we've got here is a wireframe city.

I'm not about to get into the heady business of considering Santiago's math as that is hardly my interest. However, I do appreciate the fact that Santiago has "worn his heart on his sleeve" and put the extrusion formula front and centre underneath the interface.

This cropped view speaks to what it is like to be a citizen of Voronoi City. Once the camera is near the ground plane the piece really starts to read like an engine for considering the relationship between urban structures. As you "tune" the system, change ripples across the city. Buildings circle around one another and make way for others to pass. The landscape shifts and the skyline modulates. This totalized city seems to exist in an improbable middle ground between the clockwork urban machinations of the 1998 film Dark City and the vector graphics of Battlezone, the classic tanksim released by Atari in 1980. While relating this piece to urban design is a stretch, Santiago's goal to "program a city with as little information as possible" raises some interesting questions. What happens when the strategy and methodology of generative and parametric design intersect with the philosophy of the demoscene at an urban scale? What other experimental cities might we conjure?

Voronoi City is a provocative, compact thought-experiment - I've enjoyed each of my interactions with the application and it has definitely inspired some reflection. Those that are frustrated by the ubiquity of Voronoi diagrams as a generative strategy might not find the piece as engaging but the graphic language of the piece and the "generative urbanism" the application implies are quite exciting. If you are interested in learning more about Santiago and his work be sure to examine his online portfolio and his work with Bestiario. Santiago also has the dubious distinction of being the first interview subject here on Serial Consign approximately two summers ago. In terms of further reading, CGI enthusiasts and gamers may also want to examine my 2008 love letter to vector graphics.