A generative evolutionary design method

Abstract This paper describes a generative evolutionary design method, called the ‘schema method’, which requires the design team to participate in the programming of generative and evolutionary rules and representations. The method consists of two phases: in the first phase, the design team develops and encodes the essential and identifiable character of the designs to be generated and evolved; in the second phase, the design team uses an evolutionary system to generate and evolve designs that incorporate this character. This method is based on a previous generative evolutionary design method, developed by John Frazer from the late 1960s onwards, called the ‘concept seeding method’.