Article:

The fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by the computational fusion ofphysical, digital and biological systems. Increasing information in terms of size,speed and scope exponentially. This fusion requires improved, if not new, toolsand methods to deal with complexity and information processing. By openingGenerative Systems to interact with the context, we believe that they can developsolutions that are more adequate for our time. This research began with aliterature review about generative systems and their application to solveproblems. We then selected the tools, Cellular Automata, L-Systems, GeneticAlgorithms and Shape Grammar, and thought about how to translate theseoriginal mathematical tools to specific design situations. We tested theapplication of these tools and methods in a workshop, implementing recursiveloops to open these techniques to interference. Analysing the empirical resultsmade us revise our design thinking, relying on the study of complexity tounderstand how these techniques can be more context-aware, so we can makedesign evolve. Finally, we present a comparative framework analyses thatinterlaces techniques and methods, so in the future we can merge physical, digitaland biological information.