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Shapes of Design: Traditional Geometry, Symmetry and Representation

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-60919-5_3

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Michela Rossi
Giorgio Buratti
Editors

Computational
Morphologies
Design Rules Between Organic Models
and Responsive Architecture
Computational Morphologies

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
Michela Rossi Giorgio Buratti
•

Editors

Computational Morphologies
Design Rules Between Organic Models
and Responsive Architecture

123
giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
Editors
Michela Rossi Giorgio Buratti
School of Design School of Design
Politecnico di Milano Politecnico di Milano
Milan Milan
Italy Italy

ISBN 978-3-319-60918-8 ISBN 978-3-319-60919-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60919-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017946655

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giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
Foreword

Founded in 1983, eCAADe—education and research in Computer Aided

Architectural Design in Europe—is a nonprofit-making association of institutions
and individuals with a common interest in promoting good practice and sharing
information in relation to the use of computers in research and education in
architecture and related professions. To fulfill this mission, eCAADe organizes an
annual international conference and since 2013 additionally a Regional
International Symposium. All presented research papers are published in the con-
ference proceedings and archived in the open access platform CumInCAD (http://
www.cumincad.org), which holds papers from the worldwide sister organizations
ACADIA (North America), CAADRIA (Asia), eCAADe (Europe), SIGraDI (South
America), and ASCAAD (Arab region), as well as related conference series.
The eCAADe conference is hosted each year by different universities in Europe,
and the conferences constitute a major event where researchers from all over the
world can present the latest results of their research and exchange ideas. To help
spread eCAADe’s goal of fostering high-quality teaching and research in CAAD in
new regions as well as in related disciplines, the eCAADe Regional International
Symposium was initiated. After the first event 2013 at the University of Porto,
Portugal, and the second 2014 at the Bialystok University of Technology, Poland,
the third 2015 event took place at the School of Design at the Politecnico di Milano,
Italy, on May 14–15.
Extending wider to other professions is also quite new to eCAADe, and we are
very pleased that Prof. Michela Rossi and Prof. Maximiliano Romero from the
School of Design at the Politecnico di Milano took this challenge. The scientific
results shown in this publication in the fields of Design and Shape Grammar,
Design and Responsivity, and Digital Heritage clearly widen the view of the
eCAADe community. The presented papers show the very high quality of the
Italian research, and also some typical, regional focuses that other researchers can
learn from.
The eCAADe organization thanks the local organizing committee, particularly
Prof. Michela Rossi and Prof. Maximiliano Romero, for their great efforts in
organizing this symposium on the theme “Computational Geometries: design rules

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
vi Foreword

between nature model and responsive architecture”, and for their work on this
publication, perfectly summarizing the symposium results.

Joachim Kieferle

José Pinto Duarte

Current and Previous eCAADe Presidents

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
Contents

Architectural Fabrication: Towards Eco-Digital Design to Build

Process in Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Paolo Cascone, Elena Ciancio, Flavio Galdi and Andrea Giglio

Part I Form and Code

On Rules and Roots: The Organic Model in Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Michela Rossi
Shapes of Design: Traditional Geometry, Symmetry and
Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Giuseppe Amoruso
Pattern Spaces: A Rule-Based Approach to Architectural Design . . . . . . 49
Marco Hemmerling
Algorithmic Modelling of Triply Periodic Minimal Surface . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Giorgio Buratti
Represented Models and Typological Algorithms: The Role of
Parametric Models for the Design of Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Andrea Casale and Michele Calvano
Project Rule-Checking for Enhancing Workers Safety in Preserving
Heritage Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Antonio Fioravanti, Francesco Livio Rossini and Armando Trento

Part II Design and Responsivity

Architectural Templates: A Hands-On Approach to Responsive
Morphologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Attilio Nebuloni and Giorgio Vignati

xiii

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
xiv Contents

Architecture After the Digital Turn: Digital Fabrication Beyond the

Computational Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Andrea Quartara
Encoding Gesture-Oriented Human Behaviour for the Development
and Control of an Adaptive Building Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Odysseas Kontovourkis, Kristis Alexandrou and
Stavros Frangogiannopoulos
Interaction and Forming, How Industrial Design Is Changing . . . . . . . . 147
Maximiliano Romero
Walkacross: Space–Motion Metric for Responsive Architecture . . . . . . . 157
Paloma Gonzalez Rojas
The Management of Parameters for the Design of
Responsive Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Cecilia Maria Bolognesi

Part III Digital Applications and Cultural Heritage

3D Modeling of an Archeological Area: The Imperial
Fora in Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Tommaso Empler
Augmented Visualization: New Technologies for Communicating
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Alberto Sdegno
The Video Animation: An Innovative Way to Communicate. . . . . . . . . . 203
Nicola Velluzzi
Research of Nonlinear Architecture Morphology Based on Psychology
Rules and Mathematical Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Jingting Cheng, Jianqun Lin and Weiming Zhang
Generating the Pantheon’s Dome: Cultural Paradigms and Shape
Grammars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Nevena Radojevic

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
Shapes of Design: Traditional Geometry,
Symmetry and Representation

Giuseppe Amoruso

Abstract Geometry, traditional arts and design universally contribute both to the
formation of ideas that to the creation of form by establishing a cultural contract
between art and science. The introduction of digital design media has been
imposing new and practical ways to rediscover knowledge or culture in represen-
tation and design from traditional arts. The subject of geometric tiling of the
Euclidean plane is always a contemporary challenge by combining creative roots of
artistic and scientific research. From the ornamental motifs of the Alhambra in
Granada and the Mezquita of Cordoba, geometry, shape and colour allow designers
to experience a wide range of meanings, ranging from the practical and technical
sphere, to the spiritual and sacred one.

Keywords Traditional arts
Geometry
Symmetry
Design pattern
CAD

1 Introduction

Science and art form the cultural foundations of a designer, because they share
common roots, the first addresses the public experience, universal, objective,
quantitative, unitary, and its language is precise, rational, made of ideas and con-
cepts. The second looks at the experience rather private, particular, subjective,
qualitative, and its language is ambiguous, emotional, made of images and stories
[1]. The connection between the two cultural spheres is in mathematics and
geometry which generate languages and representations (Fig. 1).
Among the Greek philosophers, Plato, illustrates his aesthetic thought that was
the language of mathematics. The Philebus is a dialogue written in the final stage of
its production (366-365 BC), in which the philosopher attributes to the master the
leading role: discussing with Philebus and Protarco, Socrates seeks the “true Good”

G. Amoruso (&)
School of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 39

M. Rossi and G. Buratti (eds.), Computational Morphologies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60919-5_3

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
Shapes of Design: Traditional Geometry, Symmetry and … 43

Whether a traditional art is representational (iconic) or non-representational

(aniconic) it will always be based on the principles of ordered space. All civilisa-
tions have acknowledged that geometry is fundamental to the cosmic order, or as
Plato explained, “…geometry is the knowledge of the eternally existent” (Republic,
Book 7, 527b). The School teaches geometry, not only as an objective language
informing the traditional arts of the world, but also as an essentially sacred lan-
guage. Students learn that patterns of traditional art reflect nature and are under-
pinned by the same geometry that is the basis of the natural world. Thus geometry is
seen as a reflection of a universal order, as was taught by the ancient Greeks and
recognised by the great Arab architects and scientists, as well as the cathedral
builders of the Middle Age.
Geometry intervenes in the creative and conceptual process in three forms: as a
language, as a representation or as structure.
Symmetry, in the words of Hermann Weyl, both in the broadest sense and in
specialized fields, it is an idea that has guided the man through the centuries to the
understanding and the creation of order, beauty and perfection [7].

2 The Illusion of Infinity

Among the challenges that have always engaged mathematicians and creatives is
the regular division of space that has found a special contribution from Escher that
studied and drawn formal and aesthetic solutions influenced by his discoveries of
Islamic patterns in Granada, Sevilla and Cordoba. It is the theory of tessellations, a
graphic process that tiles a plane in a finite number of small elements obeying to
geometric rules related to the concept of symmetry. This idea has inspired the
research of meanings and forms combined with multiple functions, involving
artists, scientists and philosophers. This is the universal necessity of representing
balance and harmony through the language of the form that includes a deep
mathematical theory that describes a phenomenon. First templates of tessellations
were found in some Sumerians buildings (about 4000 BC) as primitive geometric
wall decorations built as patterns of clay tiles. The first documented studies about
tessellations are referenced to Johannes Kepler when, in 1619, he published his
Harmonices Mundi (Harmony of the Worlds); he presented regular and semiregular
tessellation to be assumed as covering of a planar surface with regular polygons. In
1891, the Russian crystallographer Yevgraf Fyodorov proved that every periodic
tiling of the plane features one of seventeen different groups of isometries, sur-
prisingly used by Egiptians in the Valley of the Kings and by Arabs in the
Alhambra’s decoration. Fyodorov’s work, in the field of geology, marked the
beginning of the mathematical study of tessellations. Other prominent contributors
include Shubnikov and Belov (1951); and Heinrich Heesch and Otto Kienzle
(1963), but also Rosen (1995) that studied the modern mathematical theory of
symmetry and its deep influence in science branche (Figs. 5, 6).

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
44 G. Amoruso

Fig. 5 Three-fold permutations: hexagonal grid (or equilateral triangle) generated patterns

Fig. 6 Four-fold permutations: square grid generated patterns

Unfolding geometrical elements from the starting concept of unity, it starts the
creative process and the repetition of patterns where the loop can continue indefi-
nitely; Sutton describes this solution as “the perfect visual solution to calling to

giuseppe.amoruso@polimi.it
 Shapes of Design: Traditional Geometry, Symmetry and … 47

This contribution is a simple step towards a return to the study of geometry as a

multimedia environment that today the use of digital technologies in the design and
also generative software can renovate delivering innovative forms of mind.

Acknowledgements Illustrations from Giuditta Margherita Maria Ansaloni (Fig. 1), Elena
Cattani (Fig. 2), Marco Dassi (Fig. 3), Federica Cocco (Fig. 4), Silvia De Bellis (Figs. 5, 6)
according to the studies and methodologies presented by Daud Sutton in Islamic Design. A genius
for geometry, Wooden Books, Glastonbury, 2007.

References

1. Odifreddi, P. (2006). Penna, pennello e bacchetta. Le tre invidie del matematico. Bari:
Laterza.
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3. De Botton, A., & Armstrong, J. (2013). The school of life, art as therapy. London: Phaidon
Press.
4. Kandinsky, W. (1946). On the spiritual in art. New York: Guggenheim Foundation.
5. Galilei, G. (1623). Il Saggiatore. Rome: Accademia dei Lincei.
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mondi di Escher. In M. C. Escher, & M. Bussagli (Eds.), Skira, Ginevra-Milano.
10. Sutton, D. (2007). Islamic design. A genius for geometry. Glastonbury: Wooden Books.
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12. Cunningham, L. B. (2010). The Mandala book: Patterns of the universe. New York: Sterling.

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