in nature since it is still based on intuition. This powerful process has a lot of potential but needs another external force or constraint to help make it parametrically performative.

Sustainability is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future (Wikipedia). Ecological political issues are growing by the day. The market for green design is increasingly marketable. Sustainability or ecological design strategies can begin to become the global constraint on the computation based design process.

What should be the script to begin this design process with? Biomimicry is the process of translating a biological system in nature and use its governing relationships and principles to solve a given problem. Could a biological organism or system become the DNA which one begins to mutate into architecture?

The Gas Station is an ideal prototype to test this new design process because gas stations are country wide. They are repetitive and symmetrical no matter where they are and no matter what the climatic region is like. What if the gas station could adapt to its climatic environment such that it becomes a sustainable project? It would begin to morph and mutate and change form just like a living organism.

The Butterfly is a species that has an extremely long wingspan in relation to its small structure. Gas stations typically have large canopies so the butterfly seems like an ideal choice for a gas station. The butterfly gains all of its strength through layers of bifurcation or folds imbedded within one another. Bifurcation according to the Catastrophe Theory is a more philosophical interpretation about making decisions, and that decision making process where there is more then one possible outcome becomes the catastrophe. Both the literal bifurcation through folds and bifurcation through splitting of paths seem ideal for an architectural application.

After a series of mutations and variations of the butterflies’ bifurcation system a gas station prototype was developed. The canopy gains its strength through the folds. The folds begin to bifurcate the paths that people can take. The folds on the roof act as water collection pits where plants and vegetation can grown and thrive. The gas station experience becomes about experiencing below the surface of the canopy, through and inside the canopy and then on top of the surface of the canopy. The canopy has a very dynamic and moving feel to it as it appears to be a portion of a field condition rather then an object. The overall experience is intended to be exhilarating and graceful at the same time.