This project was the assignment for the course ‘Generative design’ in art school. The idea was to start with a simple volume (like a cube or a sphere) and apply predefined rules to it chosen at random from a large set of rules. The set of rules were thought up by students and contained rules like:

Copy the volume, shrink the copy with 50 percent. Arrange both volumes (original and copy) such that the centres of their top planes coïncide. Now subtract the copy from the original.
 
Take a random point in the volume, draw a line from this point to the middle of the volume. Shorten the line with a factor 0.4 and let the volume deform accordingly.
 
Isolate one fifth of the volume (at its longest side) and increase this part by 70%.

 So when starting with a cube:

applying the first rule gets:

and then the second rule (in transparent view):

After a couple of rules, the forms can get pretty bizarre / interesting:

When starting with a sphere:

we get forms like:

and:

After generating a couple of these series, I chose the most suitable that could serve as the design for a building. So the process is not completely random, apart from thinking up the rules, the human gets the final pick in selecting the best volume. I chose:

I put it on its side and turned it into an ice-cream parlour: