Page 93 - JCAU-7-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Computational urbanism on Dashilar

Figure 4. The changing state of the traffic field within a 24-h period of time. Source: Drawing by the authors

By regulating the density of updated outcomes, the original
program layout is adjusted to produce fully dense volumes
locally. Subsequently, by assessing the density and porosity
of these new volumes, more varied and appropriate spatial
patterns are achieved. These patterns are tailored to specific
programs at a highly microscopic level (Figure 6).

2.4. Morphological response
During the generation of the grid system, information is
effectively transformed into spatial structures. Although
the grid system serves as a control mechanism that
influences the overall spatial form at the macro level, it
does not accurately reflect how architectural forms respond
to external factors. Architectural forms, as the external
manifestation of buildings, should dynamically respond
to relevant influences, such as transportation networks. To
address this, a model governed by unified principles should
be established to articulate the relationship between these
factors and urban forms, thereby regulating morphological
changes. This approach ensures that as cities evolve,
Figure 5. Governing and communicating the transformation of hutong
spaces through urban force fields. Source: Drawing by the authors architectural forms concurrently undergo appropriate
transformations. Beyond architectural form, terrain
of rules: each cell within the regular grid assumes a limited emerges as another crucial element in spatial shaping
set of discrete states, adheres to uniform operational rules, (Bentley & Corne, 2002). By reorganizing terrain slopes,
and updates synchronously based on predefined local rainwater harvesting and flood prevention capabilities
can be enhanced. In addition, terrain collaborates with
regulations. The interactions among a multitude of cells, architectural forms as part of the earth’s landscape,
governed by these simple rules, drive the evolution of the adapting to environmental changes and giving rise to new
dynamic system. spatial forms (Figure 7).
The cellular automata model features the discretization
of time, space, and state, with each variable assuming only 3. Prototyping
a limited number of states. Changes in state are governed Following the economic reforms and opening-up period,
by rules localized in both time and space (Shen & Ye, 2024). long-time residents of Beijing increasingly vacated

Volume 7 Issue 2 (2025) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.4056