FractalTiling
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It is desirable for the structure footprint to have the property of fractal tiling, meaning that it tiles at any scale - small units can combine into medium units which can combine into large units. And a medium unit made of small units has the same shape as a medium unit built in one piece.
Shapes:
- Two simple shapes with this property are the Equilateral Triangle and the Square. The square leads to more normally shaped rooms inside. However it also leads to very sharp external corners which are not ideal for wave dispersal or reduced wind loading.
- Hexagons don't have this property, since when you combine them, you don't get a hexagon. However, you can fit hexagons together without interstitial spaces. You can also leave a space blank without interrupting the pattern
- Octagons likewise don't form more octagons, nor do they fit together without interstitial spacing.
- Sadly, round shapes (while pretty) are not very tile-able.
So for example, we could build square small 10mx10m seasteads, medium 20mx20m seasteads, and large 40mx40m seasteads. Any group of 4 small 10mx10m seasteads can lock together to form a 20mx20m square, which could lock together with a medium 20mx20m seastead built in one piece.
See also:
