Beyond unit cells: Programmable morphogenetic design of irregular architected materials

Abstract

Architected materials derive functionality from geometry, yet conventional unit cell–based design limits functional heterogeneity, geometric adaptability, and robustness to defects. Inspired by natural morphogenesis, we introduce RDGenCAD, a morphogenetic design framework that translates programmable growth rules into reaction–diffusion dynamics to generate self-organized, CAD-ready architectures. A database of 120,000 morphogenetic structures reveals statistically deterministic and continuous tunability of elastic properties across auxetic and conventional regimes, despite pronounced geometric irregularity. These architectures further exhibit emergent flaw insensitivity and crack deflection through stress compartmentalization, leading to synergistic gains in strength and toughness relative to regular lattices. By shifting architected material design from unit-cell tessellation to programmable morphogenetic growth, this work establishes self-organization as a generative principle for designing materials that are irregular yet predictable, heterogeneous yet “coherent,” and directly manufacturable.