INSTRUCTOR: Lalvani
UA Pratt Institute School of Architecture

Description:

Fundamental studies in spatial structures as well as formal and structural morphologies (topologies) are examined through hands-on experimentation and discovery. Morphological/morphogenetic principles in selected examples of architecture, nature and geometry provide a starting point for exploration. Chosen examples are studied first, followed by the generation of new related architectonic structures and spaces.

Requirements:

Completion of project through models and drawings as needed. Weekly participation.

Documentation required.

Bibliography:

D’Arcy W. Thompson, On Growth and Form, ed. J.T.Bonner, Cambridge, 1961

Heinrich Engel, Structure Systems, Praeger, 1968

R.Buckminster Fuller, Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller, Anchor, 1973

Vittorio Giorgini, Spatiology, The Morphology of the Natural Sciences in Architecture and Design, L’Arca Edizioni, 1995

Thomas Herzog, Pneumatic Structures, Oxford, 1976

Kazuo Ishii, Membranes Structures in Japan, Taiyo-Kogyo, 1993

Frei Otto, Finding Form, Edition Axel Menges, 1995.

Peter Pearce, Structure in Nature is a Strategy for Design, MIT, 1978

Tony Robbin, Engineering a New Architecture, Yale, 1996

IL Series, publications of the Institute for Lightweight Structures, Univ. of Stuttgart. Jay Kappraff, Connections: The Geometric Link between Art and Science, World Scientifi c, 2002.

Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, Freeman, 1983.

Stephen Wolfram, A New Kind of Science, Wolfram Media, 2002.

P. Prusinkiewicz, The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants, Springer-Verlag, 1990.

Relevant articles and websites (citations in class or sent by email).