The walls of the new concert hall in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, have an organic look to them. Each of the 10,000 panels have a unique size and shape. Together, the uniquely shaped and placed gypsum fiber acoustic panels make for the ideal acoustic experience. But they weren’t copied from nature; their design was actually determined by algorithms, using a process called parametric design. The philharmonic’s architects, Herzog and De Meuron, worked with the famous acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota to create the auditorium’s sound map. Watch the video above to see how algorithms make architecture.