holebased

Holebased is a term used to describe a design and analysis approach that emphasizes the use of holes or voids within a structure, process, or representation. The term is not widely standardized and has been used in different domains without a single canonical definition. In materials science and architecture, holebased design refers to the intentional incorporation of openings, perforations, or lattice voids to adjust properties such as weight, strength, ventilation, lighting, acoustics, or aesthetics. The key idea is to rely on absence as a design element.

In mathematics and computer science, holebased can describe representations or algorithms that operate on the complement of a set or on data with missing elements, focusing on "holes" rather than the filled parts. For example, holebased data structures may use sparse representations where nonzero elements are few and holes are implicit; in topology, holes (and their relationships) inform the structure of objects via Betti numbers and homology, and a holebased approach would analyze these features rather than surface content.

History and usage: The term arose in discussions around perforated design and sparse representations in late 20th and early 21st century, but there is no standard definition, and usage varies by discipline. In contemporary discourse, holebased often competes with or complements presence-based approaches that focus on filled regions or concrete elements.

Criticisms: The lack of a precise definition can hinder cross-disciplinary communication, and the benefits of holebased approaches depend heavily on context and manufacturability.

See also: perforated design, lattice structure, sparse representation, topology, missing data.