Formulations

Formulations
Author: Andrew Witt
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0262543001

An investigation of mathematics as it was drawn, encoded, imagined, and interpreted by architects on the eve of digitization in the mid-twentieth century. In Formulations, Andrew Witt examines the visual, methodological, and cultural intersections between architecture and mathematics. The linkages Witt explores involve not the mystic transcendence of numbers invoked throughout architectural history, but rather architecture’s encounters with a range of calculational systems—techniques that architects inventively retooled for design. Witt offers a catalog of mid-twentieth-century practices of mathematical drawing and calculation in design that preceded and anticipated digitization as well as an account of the formal compendia that became a cultural currency shared between modern mathematicians and modern architects. Witt presents a series of extensively illustrated “biographies of method”—episodes that chart the myriad ways in which mathematics, particularly the mathematical notion of modeling and drawing, was spliced into the creative practice of design. These include early drawing machines that mechanized curvature; the incorporation of geometric maquettes—“theorems made flesh”—into the toolbox of design; the virtualization of buildings and landscapes through surveyed triangulation and photogrammetry; formal and functional topology; stereoscopic drawing; the economic implications of cubic matrices; and a strange synthesis of the technological, mineral, and biological: crystallographic design. Trained in both architecture and mathematics, Witt uses mathematics as a lens through which to understand the relationship between architecture and a much broader set of sciences and visual techniques. Through an intercultural exchange with other disciplines, he argues, architecture adapted not only the shapes and surfaces of mathematics but also its values and epistemic ideals.

Parametric Geometry of Curves and Surfaces

Parametric Geometry of Curves and Surfaces
Author: Alberto Lastra
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2021-09-06
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3030813177

This textbook provides a thorough introduction to the differential geometry of parametrized curves and surfaces, along with a wealth of applications to specific architectural elements. Geometric elements in architecture respond to practical, physical and aesthetic needs. Proper understanding of the mathematics underlying the geometry provides control over the construction. This book relates the classical mathematical theory of parametrized curves and surfaces to multiple applications in architecture. The presentation is mathematically complete with numerous figures and animations illustrating the theory, and special attention is given to some of the recent trends in the field. Solved exercises are provided to see the theory in practice. Intended as a textbook for lecture courses, Parametric Geometry of Curves and Surfaces is suitable for mathematically-inclined students in engineering, architecture and related fields, and can also serve as a textbook for traditional differential geometry courses to mathematics students. Researchers interested in the mathematics of architecture or computer-aided design will also value its combination of precise mathematics and architectural examples.

A Ludic Journey into Geometric Topology

A Ludic Journey into Geometric Topology
Author: Ton Marar
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2022-09-01
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3031074424

This book draws on elements from everyday life, architecture, and the arts to provide the reader with elementary notions of geometric topology. Pac Man, subway maps, and architectural blueprints are the starting point for exploring how knowledge about geometry and, more specifically, topology has been consolidated over time, offering a learning journey that is both dense and enjoyable. The text begins with a discussion of mathematical models, moving on to Platonic and Keplerian theories that explain the Cosmos. Geometry from Felix Klein's point of view is then presented, paving the way to an introduction to topology. The final chapters present the concepts of closed, orientable, and non-orientable surfaces, as well as hypersurface models. Adopting a style that is both rigorous and accessible, this book will appeal to a broad audience, from curious students and researchers in various areas of knowledge to everyone who feels instigated by the power of mathematics in representing our world - and beyond.

Surface Architecture

Surface Architecture
Author: David Leatherbarrow
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2005-02-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262621946

A study of the building surface, architecture's primary instrument of identity and engagement with its surroundings. Visually, many contemporary buildings either reflect their systems of production or recollect earlier styles and motifs. This division between production and representation is in some ways an extension of that between modernity and tradition. In this book, David Leatherbarrow and Mohsen Mostafavi explore ways that design can take advantage of production methods such that architecture is neither independent of nor dominated by technology. Leatherbarrow and Mostafavi begin with the theoretical and practical isolation of the building surface as the subject of architectural design. The autonomy of the surface, the "free facade," presumes a distinction between the structural and nonstructural elements of the building, between the frame and the cladding. Once the skin of the building became independent of its structure, it could just as well hang like a curtain, or like clothing. The focus of the relationship between structure and skin is the architectural surface. In tracing the handling of this surface, the authors examine both contemporary buildings and those of the recent past. Architects discussed include Albert Kahn, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Alison and Peter Smithson, Alejandro de la Sota, Robert Venturi, Jacques Herzog, and Pierre de Meuron. The properties of a building's surface—whether it is made of concrete, metal, glass, or other materials—are not merely superficial; they construct the spatial effects by which architecture communicates. Through its surfaces a building declares both its autonomy and its participation in its surroundings.

Geometry of Riemann Surfaces

Geometry of Riemann Surfaces
Author: William J. Harvey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2010-02-11
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0521733073

Original research and expert surveys on Riemann surfaces.

Mathematics and Culture I

Mathematics and Culture I
Author: Michele Emmer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2003-12-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783540017707

A fascinating and insightful collection of papers on the strong links between mathematics and culture. The contributions range from cinema and theatre directors to musicians, architects, historians, physicians, graphic designers and writers. The text highlights the cultural and formative character of mathematics, its educational value, and imaginative dimension. These articles are highly interesting, sometimes amusing, and make excellent starting points for researching the strong connection between scientific and literary culture.

Lumen Naturae

Lumen Naturae
Author: Matilde Marcolli
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2020-05-26
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0262043904

Exploring common themes in modern art, mathematics, and science, including the concept of space, the notion of randomness, and the shape of the cosmos. This is a book about art—and a book about mathematics and physics. In Lumen Naturae (the title refers to a purely immanent, non-supernatural form of enlightenment), mathematical physicist Matilde Marcolli explores common themes in modern art and modern science—the concept of space, the notion of randomness, the shape of the cosmos, and other puzzles of the universe—while mapping convergences with the work of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Mark Rothko, Sol LeWitt, and Lee Krasner. Her account, focusing on questions she has investigated in her own scientific work, is illustrated by more than two hundred color images of artworks by modern and contemporary artists. Thus Marcolli finds in still life paintings broad and deep philosophical reflections on space and time, and connects notions of space in mathematics to works by Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and others. She considers the relation of entropy and art and how notions of entropy have been expressed by such artists as Hans Arp and Fernand Léger; and traces the evolution of randomness as a mode of artistic expression. She analyzes the relation between graphical illustration and scientific text, and offers her own watercolor-decorated mathematical notebooks. Throughout, she balances discussions of science with explorations of art, using one to inform the other. (She employs some formal notation, which can easily be skipped by general readers.) Marcolli is not simply explaining art to scientists and science to artists; she charts unexpected interdependencies that illuminate the universe.