Generative Art  /  Technical Drawing  /  2026

Technical Drawing

A generative system that produces infinite architectural documents — each a unique composition of structure, dimension, and notation that never existed before and will never exist again.

The machine drafts what no hand drew. Every element — grid, elevation, cube, vector — is computed live in the browser. Each generation is a new proposition.

Architecture begins as drawing. Drawing is instruction, aspiration, constraint.
What does it mean to generate the drawing before the building — or instead of it?

Use the controls to adjust complexity, line weight, and elements  ·  Click Generate New for a fresh drawing  ·  Download as PNG

800
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Process

01
Ground

Every drawing begins with the grid — the baseline condition of all technical thought. Structure before content.

02
Elevation

The horizon line divides the drawing into registers. Objects find their relationship to the ground plane.

03
Notation

Vectors, labels, dimensions — the language that translates form into instruction. Meaning made legible.

04
Generation

No two drawings are alike. Each execution is a unique document — produced, then released into the archive of possible forms.

Concept

Twenty years of museum planning produced thousands of technical drawings — plans, sections, elevations. Each drawing was an argument about how a space should exist. Each line carried intention.

This work reverses the process. The machine generates the drawing first. There is no building. There is only the document — the grid, the notation, the structural proposition floating free of any physical consequence.

"The drawing is not the representation of the building. The drawing is the thought."

What does architecture look like when freed from the obligation to be built? What does technical language say when it is no longer in service of construction — when it becomes an end in itself?

Technical

Software

  • P5.js — creative coding library
  • HTML5 Canvas — 2D rendering
  • Single-file architecture, no server
  • PNG export via saveCanvas()
  • Seeded randomness — reproducible forms

Drawing Elements

  • Isometric cubes on elevation line
  • Circle and oval clusters
  • Perspective vanishing lines
  • Directional arrows and zigzags
  • Technical vocabulary labels
  • Parametric grid and line weight
Mark Walhimer
Museum planner  ·  Industrial designer  ·  Generative artist

Mark Walhimer (1964) is a generative artist and museum designer with twenty years of experience creating interactive public spaces. Managing partner of Museum Planning LLC. Executive Director, Museum of Arts & Sciences (Macon, Georgia). Fulbright Specialist. Author of Museums 101 and Designing Museum Experiences (Bloomsbury). Former design consultant, Smithsonian Institution. Former project director, Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Faculty, Georgia Institute of Technology and Tec de Monterrey. Began in the studio of Judy Pfaff, 1985. Exhibited at MIRADAS TANGENTES, Madrid, 2026.