What are Algorithms?

There's been a growing public interest in algorithms in recent years, and this shift has in some ways created an idea that algorithms are far more complex and advanced than they actually are or need to be. In essence, an algorithm can be thought of as:

A set of instructions that typically help to solve a problem.

Algorithms in Generative Design

A generative design approach involves several steps with distinct types of algorithms that encode logic at each step.

The methods used in each step are very different from each other, so we generally categorize them in the following way:

Step	Algorithm Type
generation of new design studies	generators
evaluation of each study	evaluators
ranking and solution achieves goal	solvers