The Voronoi Platform is a design research project for the course Design Computing III for the Winter Semester 2025. The project explores how a mathematical logic — the Voronoi Diagram — can bridge the gap between nature and architecture to solve a specific urban “scar” in the heart of Prague near the main station. Our goal was to create a functional public space that literally grows over existing infrastructure, inspired by the efficiency of natural patterns.
Architecture often finds its most efficient forms by mimicking nature. Whether it is the cracking of dried earth, the intricate veins of a leaf, or the patterns on a giraffe’s skin, the Voronoi pattern appears wherever nature needs to divide a space efficiently based on a set of points. We aim to use this mathematical bridge to create organic, yet structurally sound, architectural forms.
We looked at Little Island in New York as a primary reference for a “floating” public park. This project uses a system of individual concrete “petals” on piles of varying heights to create a topographical landscape over water. We wanted to adapt this logic—using individual structural cells to create a continuous public surface—and apply it to an urban rail environment.
We identified a significant unused site in Prague’s city centre: the empty space over the railway tracks between the National Museum and the Main Train Station. Currently, this area acts as a barrier that divides the city in half. We asked ourselves: How can we apply the Voronoi concept to “heal” this urban rift and reclaim the space for the public? The site is situated in a high-traffic area between the historic building of the National Museum and the busy tracks of the Main Station. By creating a platform here, we can provide a pedestrian link that currently doesn’t exist, effectively expanding the public realm of Wenceslas Square over the railway.
Our solution is a multi-level public platform. The structural layout is determined by a Voronoi diagram, which allows us to place supports strategically between the tracks while creating a complex, varied landscape above for people to enjoy.
We began by modelling the existing site terrain in Grasshopper. This allows us to understand the elevation changes between the street level and the railway tracks, ensuring our platform integrates seamlessly with the surrounding topography. We did so by uploading the coordinates and creating the Mesh.
Next, we created the base platform boundary over the tracks. This represents the maximum “footprint” of our new public space.
This was a crucial step: we defined points that would become the centres of our Voronoi cells. Critically, we programmed the logic to ensure no points are placed directly on the active railways.
We then projected these 2D points onto our base platform. This links our mathematical diagram directly to the three-dimensional terrain we modelled in Step 1.
With our points projected, we generated the Voronoi diagram directly on the platform surface. This creates the “puzzle piece” aesthetic, where every cell is unique but part of a cohesive whole.
To make the space more dynamic, we extruded each cell to a different height. This creates a “stepped” landscape that can be used for seating, viewpoints, or varied planting zones, much like a natural hillside.
Following the Heatherwick precedent, we generated organic supports for each cell. These columns flare out at the top to meet the edges of the Voronoi cells, transferring the load safely to the ground between the tracks.
Here you see the final result of the Grasshopper script. The entire system is parametric, meaning we can adjust the number of points or the height of the cells to optimize the design for sun exposure or pedestrian flow.
Bc. Evdokia Podobryaeva & Bc. Emiliia Konenko
ZS 2025/2026
DC III