Monolith: The Biomedical Paradigm and the Inner Complexity of Hierarchical Material Design

This paper discusses our ongoing research into hierarchical volumetric modeling and the external forces which are motivating a shift from the traditional boundary representation (also known as BREP) that has thus far dominated design software toward a more flexible voxel-based representation capable of describing complex variable material distributions. We present Monolith; a volumetric modelling application which explores hybrid forms of digital representations and new design workflows that extend a designer's ability to describe the material properties of a 3d model at the mesoscopic and even microscopic scales. We discuss the inherent complexities in volumetric modelling and describe the design opportunities which heretofore were unavailable using existing techniques.