Architecture, Patterns, and Mathematics Nikos A. Salingaros
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The Dual Language of Geometry in Gothic Architecture: the Symbolic Message of Euclidian Geometry Versus the Visual Dialogue of Fractal Geometry
Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture Volume 5 Issue 2 135-172 2015 The Dual Language of Geometry in Gothic Architecture: The Symbolic Message of Euclidian Geometry versus the Visual Dialogue of Fractal Geometry Nelly Shafik Ramzy Sinai University Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal Part of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Ramzy, Nelly Shafik. "The Dual Language of Geometry in Gothic Architecture: The Symbolic Message of Euclidian Geometry versus the Visual Dialogue of Fractal Geometry." Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 5, 2 (2015): 135-172. https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol5/iss2/7 This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Art History at Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture by an authorized editor of Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ramzy The Dual Language of Geometry in Gothic Architecture: The Symbolic Message of Euclidian Geometry versus the Visual Dialogue of Fractal Geometry By Nelly Shafik Ramzy, Department of Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Sinai University, El Masaeed, El Arish City, Egypt 1. Introduction When performing geometrical analysis of historical buildings, it is important to keep in mind what were the intentions -
Modern Architecture and Luxury: Aesthetics and the Evolution of the Modern Subject
arts Book Review Modern Architecture and Luxury: Aesthetics and the Evolution of the Modern Subject Joanna Merwood-Salisbury School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand; [email protected] Received: 30 July 2019; Accepted: 31 July 2019; Published: 6 August 2019 Abstract: A book review of Robin Schuldenfrei, Luxury and Modernism: Architecture and the Object in Germany 1900–1933 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018). This book challenges the canonical interpretation of two of the most revered institutions in the history of modern architecture—the Werkbund and the Bauhaus—and presents a critical interpretation of the relationship between modern architecture and luxury, which first appeared a generation ago. Keywords: architecture; design; luxury; AEG; Werkbund; Bauhaus; Germany; modernism Luxury and Modernism: Architecture and the Object in Germany 1900–1933 challenges the canonical interpretation of two of the most revered institutions in the history of modern architecture—the Werkbund and the Bauhaus—and presents a critical interpretation of the relationship between modern architecture and luxury, which first appeared a generation ago. In the founding documents of the modern movement, architecture and luxury were framed as irreconcilable opposites. To be modern was to reject ornament—the traditional aesthetic signifier of social status (Veblen [1899] 1994; Sombart [1913] 1967; Massey 2004). Cheapened by thoughtless application, ornament was seen as wasteful and excessive—a superfluous excrescence to be sloughed off through purifying processes of subtraction and elimination. Framed in terms of social evolution, to take pleasure in ornament was evidence of a primitive or retarded stage of racial development (Loos [1908] 1970; Muthesius [1903] 1994). -
Assessing Alexander's Later Contributions to a Science of Cities
Review Assessing Alexander’s Later Contributions to a Science of Cities Michael W. Mehaffy KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden; mmehaff[email protected] or michael.mehaff[email protected] Received: 23 April 2019; Accepted: 28 May 2019; Published: 30 May 2019 Abstract: Christopher Alexander published his longest and arguably most philosophical work, The Nature of Order, beginning in 2003. Early criticism assessed that text to be a speculative failure; at best, unrelated to Alexander’s earlier, mathematically grounded work. On the contrary, this review presents evidence that the newer work was a logically consistent culmination of a lifelong and remarkably useful inquiry into part-whole relations—an ancient but still-relevant and even urgent topic of design, architecture, urbanism, and science. Further evidence demonstrates that Alexander’s practical contributions are remarkably prodigious beyond architecture, in fields as diverse as computer science, biology and organization theory, and that these contributions continue today. This review assesses the potential for more particular contributions to the urban professions from the later work, and specifically, to an emerging “science of cities.” It examines the practical, as well as philosophical contributions of Alexander’s proposed tools and methodologies for the design process, considering both their quantitative and qualitative aspects, and their potential compatibility with other tools and strategies now emerging from the science of cities. Finally, it highlights Alexander’s challenge to an architecture profession that seems increasingly isolated, mired in abstraction, and incapable of effectively responding to larger technological and philosophical challenges. Keywords: Christopher Alexander; The Nature of Order; pattern language; structure-preserving transformations; science of cities 1. -
The Decorative in Twentieth Century Art: a Story of Decline and Resurgence
THE DECORATIVE IN TWENTIETH CENTURY ART: A STORY OF DECLINE AND RESURGENCE PAMELA GAUNT A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Art Theory Postgraduate Board, University of New South Wales August 2005 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname or Family name: GAUNT First name: Pamela Other name/s: Mary Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: MA (Art Theory) School: School of Art History/Theory Faculty: COFA Title: The Decorative in Twentieth Century Art: A Story of Decline and Resurgence. Abstract: This thesis tracks the complex relationship between visual art and the decorative in the Twentieth Century. In doing so, it makes a claim for the ongoing interest and viability of decorative practices within visual art, in the wake of their marginalisation within Modernist art and theory. The study is divided into three main sections. First, it demonstrates and questions the exclusion of the decorative within the central currents of modernism. Second, it examines the resurgence of the decorative in postmodern art and theory. This section is based on case studies of a number of postmodern artists whose work gained notice in the 1980s, and which evidences a sustained engagement with a decorative or ornamental aesthetic. The artists include Rosemarie Trockel, Lucas Samaras, Philip Taaffe, and several artists from the Pattern and Decoration Painting Movement of the 1970s. The final component of the study investigates the function and significance of the decorative in the work of a selection of Australian and international contemporary artists. The art of Louise Paramor, Simon Periton and Do-Ho Suh is examined in detail. -
The Patterns of Architecture/T3xture
THE PATTERNS OF ARCHITECTURE NIKOS A. SALINGAROS Published in Lynda Burke, Randy Sovich, and Craig Purcell, Editors: T3XTURE No. 3, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016, pages 7-24. EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION Pattern theory has not as yet transformed architectural practice—despite the acclaim for A Pattern Language, 1 Christopher Alexander’s book, which introduced and substantiated the theory. However, it has generated a great amount of far-ranging, supportive scholarship. In this essay Nikos Salingaros expands the scope of the pattern types under consideration, and explicates some of the mathematical, scientific and humanistic justification for the pattern approach. The author also argues for the manifest superiority of the pattern approach to design over Modernist and contemporary theories of the last one hundred years. To a great extent Dr. Salingaros’s conviction rests on the process and goals of the pattern language method which have as their basis the fundamental realities of the natural world: the mathematics of nature (many that have been studied since the beginning of human history); the process of organic development; and the ideal structural environment for human activity. For Salingaros, Alexander, et al. aesthetics in Architecture derive from these principles rather than from notions of style or artistic inspiration. AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION — KEY PATTERN CONCEPTS Pattern. A pattern is a discovered organization of space, and also a coherent merging of geometry with human actions. In common usage “pattern” has an expansive definition. In Architecture “pattern” often equates with “solution”. In any discussion of architectural pattern theory the word “pattern” itself is used repeatedly, often with reference to somewhat different concepts. -
Working with Fractals a Resource for Practitioners of Biophilic Design
WORKING WITH FRACTALS A RESOURCE FOR PRACTITIONERS OF BIOPHILIC DESIGN A PROJECT OF THE EUROPEAN ‘COST RESTORE ACTION’ PREPARED BY RITA TROMBIN IN COLLABORATION WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This toolkit is the result of a joint effort between Terrapin Bright Green, Cost RESTORE Action (REthinking Sustainability TOwards a Regenerative Economy), EURAC Research, International Living Future Institute, Living Future Europe and many other partners, including industry professionals and academics. AUTHOR Rita Trombin SUPERVISOR & EDITOR Catherine O. Ryan CONTRIBUTORS Belal Abboushi, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Luca Baraldo, COOKFOX Architects DCP Bethany Borel, COOKFOX Architects DCP Bill Browning, Terrapin Bright Green Judith Heerwagen, University of Washington Giammarco Nalin, Goethe Universität Kari Pei, Interface Nikos Salingaros, University of Texas at San Antonio Catherine Stolarski, Catherine Stolarski Design Richard Taylor, University of Oregon Dakota Walker, Terrapin Bright Green Emily Winer, International Well Building Institute CITATION Rita Trombin, ‘Working with fractals: a resource companion for practitioners of biophilic design’. Report, Terrapin Bright Green: New York, 31 December 2020. Revised June 2021 © 2020 Terrapin Bright Green LLC For inquiries: [email protected] or [email protected] COVER DESIGN: Catherine O. Ryan COVER IMAGES: Ice crystals (snow-603675) by Quartzla from Pixabay; fractal gasket snowflake by Catherine Stolarski Design. 2 Working with Fractals: A Toolkit © 2020 Terrapin Bright Green LLC -
Ulrich ] a Hot Ray and Walls Grown Cold
ARCHIVE [ ULRICH ] A HOT RAY AND WALLS GROWN COLD. n. 34 | WIEN, 1913 o3 LAYER(S) OF MEANING and building alike – this suggests that there are multiple layers of meaning waiting to be uncovered. As a specific application of Aphorisms stick with us because they are short and easy to language with persuasive objectives towards a particular course of remember, but they remain embedded in history because they are thought or action, rhetoric demands our attention to two levels of usually just abstract enough to offer flexibility of interpretation. meaning: that conveyed through surface content of communication Adolf Loos was notorious for his stimulating, sometimes polemic (3) Definitions are particularly and that which emerges through the use of irregular expression.3 useful, but also quite slippery, writing style, and he provided his readers with pithy aphorisms by consisting of ideal clauses that the dozens. may or may not relate to The “species” of rhetoric – categorized by audience involvement and one another. The definition of rhetoric given here (extending chronological sequence of the argument in relation to its effects – all One such quote by Loos, appearing again and again in mono- into the following paragraph) is portray the primary intentions of the rhetorician as being persua- an interpretation of the classical graphs, biographies, architectural and cultural histories, seems categories and subheadings sion, encouragement to set off a series of actions or, more abstractly, reasonably straightforward: “The architect is a bricklayer who has broken down by George A. beliefs. A different analytical division of rhetoric, this time into Kennedy in A New History 1 (1) The oft-quoted – always learned Latin.” Janet Stewart’s explanation of the quote determines of Classical Rhetoric (Princeton: “parts” – the active components that together form the basis for with slight variation – Princeton University Press, 1994). -
The Impacts of Symmetry in Architecture and Urbanism: Toward a New Research Agenda
buildings Article The Impacts of Symmetry in Architecture and Urbanism: Toward a New Research Agenda Michael W. Mehaffy Centre for the Future of Places, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden; mmehaff[email protected] Received: 7 November 2020; Accepted: 15 December 2020; Published: 19 December 2020 Abstract: Architecture has an ancient relationship to mathematics, and symmetry—in the broad sense of the term—is a core topic of both. Yet the contemporary application of theories of symmetry to architecture and built environments is a surprisingly immature area of research. At the same time, research is showing a divergence between the benefits of and preferences for natural environments on the one hand, and built environments on the other, demonstrating relatively deleterious effects of many contemporary built environments. Yet the research cannot yet pinpoint the actual geometric factors of architecture and urbanism that could produce such an important divergence. This paper explores this research gap, surveying the literature across a range of fields, and assessing current evidence for the impacts of symmetry in the built environment upon human perception and well-being. As an emerging case study, it considers the recent work by Christopher Alexander and Nikos Salingaros, two trained mathematicians who have made notable contributions to architecture and urbanism. The conclusion proposes a new research agenda toward further development of this immature subject area. Keywords: symmetry; aesthetics; geometry; biophilia; environmental preference 1. Introduction The application of mathematics to architecture is very likely as old as architecture itself [1]. From the use of arithmetic to measure lengths, to the calculation of squares and angles, to the complex analysis of structural loading capacities, mathematics has served architecture as an essential toolset to improve quality and performance. -
User Experience Best Practices for Data Analysis QLIK DEMOS & BEST PRACTICES TEAM
User Experience Best Practices for Data Analysis QLIK DEMOS & BEST PRACTICES TEAM NOVEMBER 2015 v1.0 Table of Contents Affordance 8 Color Accessibility 10 Contextualized KPIs 12 Contrast 14 F-shaped Formation 15 Filters 16 Fitt’s Law 20 Grid Based Design 21 Hierarchy of Information 23 Icons 25 Interaction Cost 26 Less is More 26 Mobile 28 Perception & the DAR Methodology 32 Progressive Disclosure 35 Scrolling 38 Typography 40 White Space 42 2 User Experience Best Practices for Data Analysis User Experience Best Practices for Data Analysis 3 Introduction Design is more than just looking pretty, it is about experience and helping users/viewers get what they need. It is about creating something that does what users want and helps people complete tasks. Looking pretty is the icing on the cake. Looking good is also subjective but whether or not a design is working can be tested empirically and is far less opinion driven. Successes & failures are easy to find. It has to work: Beauty & Brains By all accounts Craigslist is an ugly website, but it has the content people want (and it’s free) so people continue to use it. Craigslist is fairly well laid out and despite being aesthetically unattractive people can navigate the site without much effort. It helps users do exactly what they want and because of this, it is well designed. The Zune was attractively designed, but frought with UX challenges. The Zune was good looking but it didn’t work. It had a difficult and buggy user experience that people didn’t want to put up with especially when the alternative, the Ipod, had a much better user experience. -
Conversations with Alexander
Conversations with Alexander David West, Transcendence Corporation _______________________________________________________________________ This is an essay about the author’s interaction with ideas advanced by Christopher Alexander. The essay has three inter-related themes: Alexander’s ideas and how they influenced the author’s own work; Alexander’s impact (or lack of it) on software development in general; and the Patterns Movement that Alexander is credited for inspiring. ACM Reference Format: West, D.. 2012. Conversations With Alexander. ACM 21 pages. Our first, meeting was in 1987. The meeting place, Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Notes) - a small book with a stark black cover and white text; an edited version of Alexander’s doctoral thesis twenty years earlier. I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. I had returned to school (leaving Macalester the second semester of my senior year) two years earlier (1985) after seventeen years working as a software development professional. By 1987 I had finished my undergraduate credits and completed two masters degrees, one in computer science and the other in cultural anthropology and was working on my Ph.D., ostensibly in cognitive anthropology but really interdisciplinary. I had three anthropologists, two computer scientists, a linguist and a psychologist as my dissertation committee. Although my CS Masters was in the area of artificial intelligence, I was convinced that the computational model of cognition was, not only wrong, but silly. It seemed that the model willfully ignored 99% of cognition to focus only on the simplest elements, those that a computer could simulate. My dissertation research was focused on devising a model of cognition that at least incorporated the role of culture. -
14 Patterns of Biophilic Design
14 PATTERNS OF BIOPHILIC DESIGN IMPROVING HEALTH & WELL-BEING IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT “…the enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it, tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it; and thus, through the influence of the mind over the body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system.” Frederick Law Olmsted, 1865 Introduction to Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove: A Preliminary Report 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper was supported by Terrapin Bright Green, LLC. We thank Alice Hartley for editorial assistance, Allison Bernett and Cas Smith for production assistance, the Review Committee and Contributors for their technical guidance and expertise, Georgy Olivieri for her relentless energy and dedication to spreading the word, Stefano Serafini and the International Society of Biourbanism for providing guidance and encouragement. CO-AUTHORS William Browning, Hon. AIA Terrapin Bright Green Catherine Ryan Terrapin Bright Green Joseph Clancy Pegasus Planning Group Ltd. REVIEW COMMITTEE Sally Augustin, PhD Design With Science; Research Design Connections Judith Heerwagen, PhD J.H. Heerwagen & Associates; University of Washington, Department of Architecture Lance Hosey, FAIA RTKL CONTRIBUTORS Scott Andrews Terrapin Bright Green Gail Brager, PhD University of California at Berkeley, Center for the Built Environment Zafir Buraei, PhD Pace University, Department of Biology and Health Sciences Nancy Clanton, PE, FIES, IALD Clanton & Associates, Inc. Chris Garvin, AIA Terrapin -
Towards Human-Oriented Design, Architecture and Urbanism: Shifts in Education and Practice
Towards human-oriented design, architecture and urbanism: shifts in education and practice. Item Type Thesis or dissertation Authors Tracada, Eleni Publisher University of Derby Download date 23/09/2021 20:04:21 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10545/582094 Towards human-oriented design, architecture and urbanism: shifts in education and practice. Faculty of Arts, Design & Technology School of Engineering and Technology Division of Built Environment May 2015 Eleni Tracada A submission in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Derby for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy or Master of Philosophy based upon Published Works 1 Contents Abstract p. 3 List of figures p. 5 1. Introduction p. 9 1.1 Background p. 9 1.2 The ‘big themes’ and experiences from the 1970s until today p. 13 2. Links of the publications with the ‘big themes’ of an intellectual journey p. 34 2.1 Publication of materials contributing to innovative behavioural and cognitive processes of learning p. 34 2.2 Publication of materials on architecture and urbanism with reference to social and scientific frameworks p. 52 3. Recent editorial work and research – Future opportunities p. 69 4. Conclusions p. 70 References p. 72 2 Abstract The scope of this piece of work is to reflect upon a series of past and recent publications as well as those in progress referring to innovations in architectural education which has already led and/or might lead to major shifts in future practices. This is an opportunity for the author to reflect on concepts and ideas for the future of architecture which is currently undergoing innovative developments by embracing new theories and enduring professional formation according to contemporary trends.