What is a Voronoi diagram?

A Voronoi diagram divides a space into regions around a set of points called sites. Every location in a region is closer to that region's site than to any other site, so the boundaries fall exactly halfway between neighboring sites.

Where are Voronoi diagrams used?

Voronoi patterns appear in nature (dried mud, giraffe skin, cell packing in leaves), in maps (cell-tower and service-area coverage), in computational geometry, and widely in generative art, where they turn scattered points into organic cell structures.

voronoi diagrams, explained

a voronoi diagram splits a space into regions, one per point, where every spot inside a region is closer to that point than to any other. the demo below is live. watch the cells drift, and click anywhere to drop in a new point.

click to add a point

what's actually happening

you scatter a handful of points, called sites. then, for every single location in the space, you ask one question: which site is nearest? color each location by its answer and the space falls into cells, one per site. the borders land exactly halfway between neighboring sites, which is why they look so natural.

where you'll see them

voronoi patterns are everywhere once you notice them: the crackle of dried mud, the plates on a giraffe, the packing of cells in a leaf, coverage maps for cell towers, and a great deal of generative art.

how gaogao uses voronoi

every organism in gaogao begins as a voronoi tessellation. it scatters sites across the canvas, grows a cell around each one, relaxes them into a gentle even spacing, and then later genes colour, outline, and reshape those cells. so the diagram you're playing with above is the literal skeleton of every piece gaogao grows.

grow one from voronoi cells →