This paper explores the working hypothesis that fractal patterns that closely match those found in nature are more likely to convey a strong sense of genius loci to humans by comparison with ‘Euclidean’ patterns that do not occur in nature frequently. A part of this survey is concerned with showing the pattern-conscious thinking, regarding the façade composition and material textures, of historical buildings compared to different ecological or geological scenes. We also examine the background of pattern-design from architectural theory, and extrapolate the matter to certain questions about spatial quality, tectonics, and the phenomenon of place. Our most important concern is an attempt to enhance architectural arguments regarding place and character with mathematical calculations. We introduce ‘relief method’ as a possible way to capture the haptic nature of architecture beyond the patterns of its two-dimensional projections. Through this approach, façades are considered as reliefs and pictures at the same time, thus reflecting the tension between their materiality and visual representation. Fractal geometry also helps to understand how architectonic layers define scale, and by which means architecture could be translated into the human level of physical existence.
Kenneth Frampton's critical regionalist interpretation of the tectonic applies the 19 th century terms of Karl Bötticher and Gottfried Semper to evaluate its role in initiating the architectural resistance, where it seems to hold a position without further cognitive prospects. Redirecting architecture essentially to philosophy, tectonics stands rather as it is given by the language and the natural use of structures or materials: in a sacral ambiguity presenting the ontological break between the frame and the cladding of a building. The revision of the Greek origin of the term reveals a Latin root as an alternative, which sheds light on the double meaning of the tectonic inherent in the architectural manifestation of Martin Heidegger's fourfold comparable to the similar modalities of Semper as well as Christian Norberg-Schulz. Based on its poetic and ritual characteristic, contemporary sacred architecture provides significant examples for both the analysis and the understanding of the symbolic debate of immanence opening up in the spatial occupation of the human being.
This study uses fractal analysis to measure the detailed intensity of well-known Classical and Renaissance façades. The study develops a method to understand their interrelated design principles more comprehensively. With this evaluation tool, one can observe intrinsic connections that support the historical continuity and point out balancing composition protocols, such as the ‘compensation rule’, that regulated design for centuries. The calculations offer mathematical constants to identify Classical and Renaissance details by plasticity rates. Finally, we base this method on spatial evaluation. Our calculations involves depth, which connects planar front views with the haptic reality of the façades’ tectonic layers. The article also discusses the cultural and urban implications of our results.
Reciprocal frames (RF) consist of elements which mutually support each other. The development of surface-related reciprocal frames is very dynamic. There are few architectural issues related closer to geometry, and demanding more work from innovative architects. The present study observes the regularities in different occurrences of RFs from medieval wooden slabs to digitally designed and fabricated amorphous structures. Our purpose is to analyse the main reasons why we should apply RF, and to describe the varicosity of symmetries which it implies. Furthermore, we examine the development process of more and more complex applicable geometries.
Considered to be the answer to the problem of globalisation, the "architecture of resistance" was exposited by Frampton (The anti-aesthetic: essays on postmodern culture. Bay Press, Port Townsend, pp. 16-30, 1983) in his polemical essay of the Six points, and illustrated through practice by some architects. The power and degree of the architectural 'resistance', though, was restrained by its rather aesthetic focus. As Moore (Constructing a new agenda: architectural theory 1993-2009. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, pp. 365-384, 2007) points out Frampton's modern regionalism was not based on a political perspective, but on a concept that stressed summarising the history of architecture from an individual aspect, rather than declaring a new agenda for praxis. In his non-modern manifesto Moore (Constructing a new agenda: architectural theory 1993-2009. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, pp. 365-384, 2007) claims the necessity of the production of a regenerative architecture, instead of basing academic considerations on design, will participate in the construction of integrated cultural and ecological processes by magnifying local labour and constructing the technologies of everyday life. Regeneration has an impact on solving the economic trauma in today's peripheral societies by motivating the centre to reconsider its role about natural sources of sustainability. Subsequently, we cannot reject the idea expounded by Solà-Morales (Differences: topographies of contemporary architecture. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 57-72, 1987), of the possibility of a new life springing from half-abandoned or marginal areas. What is the unique architectural self-reference that is still untouched by reproducible technologies and global political interventions? To respond to this question, this chapter takes a closer look at the latest relevant tendencies of the architecture of the 'Marginal Worlds'.
The purpose of this paper is to outline an innovative modular housing system based on geometric regularities, which responds to the issues raised by urbanization, the principles of environmental awareness, and the model of a sustainable city. The starting point of the analysis of wood-based systems is analysing the variations of elements obtained by repeating and assembling regular flat joints for filling the planar and the spatial. The following step is to model real spatial situations. According to the principal idea, geometric principle based logic games provide a pattern for designing modular housing units or systems. Although inherent in the classification and variation of the same elements, the system has a high degree of freedom and flexibility due to its nature. Multidimensional vertical spaces provide the opportunity to maximize the space given, while the openness and the flexibility of the system, the current character of the city, neighbourhood features remain-moreover, its implementation is flexible, adaptive, and customizable.
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