The form of the architectural organisms is generated from their 8-gene genome using a recursive growth algorithm. The algorithm integrates a spatial logic, for opening and closing volumes of space as the form is generated, and a structural logic, tied to the rules and limitations of the differential space-truss.

The spatial logic is based on a three-dimensional Cellular Automata. Cellular Automata are computer-based systems for modeling complex adaptive systems, used to model everything from slime-mold growth, to ant colony behavior, to turbulence in fluid systems. Cellular Automata typically involve sets of discreet elements in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional matrix, usually visualized as black and white dots in a grid. The elements have specific states (typically on or off) that change over time based on the iteration of a simple set of deterministic rules. The elements change state as a function of their current state, and the rules, producing an unpredictable and complex pattern of behaviors.

The Cellular Automata system that is used in the D.E.A.D software is an adaptation of "Conway's Game of Life", a system invented by mathematician John Conway. The system works on a two-dimensional grid of black and white tiles. The rules of the system work in a qualitative way, to simulate a very simple model of interactions of organisms in a population. The rules (see figure on left) operate upon every grid point, simultaneously and in parallel, by analyzing the each point and its 8 neighbors. The number of neighbors dictates whether the current tile dies (changes state from black to white), is born (changes from white to black) or remains the same. These few simple rules, named to match the real-world behaviors they are attempting to simulate (overcrowding, reproduction and loneliness), produce complex and unpredictable behaviors over time. (see Quicktime animation right). The reason for using the "Game of Life" as a starting point for a morphology is that the rules allow for the spontaneous creation, and destruction, of voids and boundaries – a fundamental requirement for the description of space.

The "Game of Life" automata operates only in two-dimensions, for the use in generating architecture it was adapted to operate in three-dimensions. The rules were changed to incorporate the fact that each object in a three-dimensional grid has 26 neighbors, and manifold more possible combinations for loneliness and overcrowding. The adapted version of the rules is shown in the figure to the left. The Quicktime animation at right shows the behavior typically created by the three-dimensional adaptation of the "Game of Life" rules, operating within a 10x10x10 grid.

In the generative algorithm used in the D.E.A.D. system, the space-forming logic of the three-dimensional "Game of Life" is coupled with a set of rules related to formal logic of a flexible structural system – the differential space-truss.

The traditional space-truss is a lattice structure of standard elements, typically leading to architecture of regular geometrical forms, as in the geodetic domes of Buckminster Fuller and projects such as I.M. Pei's Javits Convention Center in New York. The traditional space-truss employs standard elements because of constraints of design, analysis and fabrication – constraints now surmountable through computer-based techniques. The differential space-truss uses non-standard elements; by allowing each element to be unique it can take on complex three-dimensional curvilinear form as well as basic linear geometry. The image on the left shows one of a few scale models of three-dimensional differential space-trusses, with non-uniform elements, that were made during the research and development of the formal algorithm. The formal algorithm incorporates the logic, and limitation of the differential space-truss – such as limiting the length of elements in the system to a range that would be structurally feasible, and incorporating specific biases and the limitations of hypothetical Computer Numerically Controlled construction methods.

The Quicktime animation below shows the generation of a single architectural form using the D.E.A.D system's morphological algorithm.