Research

Blobs

Tiling with blobs

University of Kansas
2025

This project investigates the use of “blob-like” pieces to tile a defined area, drawing inspiration from the retro video game Puyo Puyo Puzzle, where players connect colorful blobs to create larger clusters and earn higher scores. Translating this playful mechanic into a spatial design experiment, the work explores how irregular, organic units can be arranged, combined, and overlapped to generate complex yet cohesive patterns. Unlike rigid geometric tilings, blob-based tilings privilege fluidity, adjacency, and soft connectivity, emphasizing the spatial qualities that emerge when boundaries are porous and forms interlock in unexpected ways. By systematically testing different blob configurations across a given area, the project studies how clusters grow, merge, and branch, creating both dense cores and looser extensions. These arrangements suggest potential architectural applications, where blob clusters can be reinterpreted as interconnected spaces—rooms, courtyards, or circulation zones—that emphasize continuity rather than separation. The emphasis on connectivity challenges conventional architectural partitions, instead proposing environments where spaces flow into one another through soft thresholds and shared boundaries. The study thus demonstrates how the logic of a simple game can inspire a deeper architectural inquiry: just as larger connected blobs score higher in Puyo Puyo, larger connected spaces might yield richer experiences of collectivity, interaction, and adaptability in built environments. At the same time, the tiling process reveals a generative design strategy: rather than predetermining form, design emerges from the dynamic relationships of blobs as they expand, overlap, and negotiate spatial limits. The resulting catalog of blob tilings can be seen as prototypes of possible architectures—playful, interconnected, and open to variation—offering an alternative vocabulary to traditional rectilinear composition. Ultimately, this project highlights how game-inspired experimentation can enrich architectural imagination, turning abstract puzzles into explorations of spatial connectivity and new forms of inhabitation.