DECONSTRUCTIVE ARCHITECTURE

Deconstructive Architecture

Request for Ethical Approval for Individual Study / Programme of Research by University Students

Please complete this form and return it to your Independent Studies Supervisor or Co-ordinator as advised by local guidance. Feedback on your application will be via your Independent Studies Supervisor or Co-ordinator

1. Your Name:

2. Programme name and code

3. Contact Info

Email:

Tel No.

Address:

4. Module name and code

5. Name of project supervisor (Director of Studies)

6. Title or topic area of proposed study

Deconstructive Architecture: Patterns and Mathematics

7. What is the aim and objectives of your study?

Mathematics teachers are bemoaning the fact that there is less and less interest in

mathematics, which has resulted in a declining mathematical capacity among students. This

stands in sharp contrast - indeed a contradiction - with the increasing technological

advances we are witnessing in our times. Here, it is proposed that an environmental factor

might contribute to the overall decline of mathematics in our society. This theory arose from

the author's interest in the theoretical basis behind architectural styles from different periods

and regions. It has recently been shown how traditional architectures obey rules that are

intrinsically mathematical. Those rules lead to buildings that, whatever their form,

encapsulate to a greater or lesser extent multiple mathematical qualities and information.

The architecture of the twentieth century has achieved novelty, and a break with the past,

precisely by eliminating those qualities.

In this paper, the word “pattern” denotes a regularity in some dimension. The simplest

examples are repeated visual units ordered with translational (linear) or rotational symmetry. Patterns also exist in a scaling dimension, where similar forms occur at different magnification.

When geometric self-similarity is defined on a hierarchy of scales, a self-similar fractal is

created. The concept of a pattern also extends to solution space, in that solutions to similar

problems are themselves related and define a single template that repeats - with some variation

- every time such a problem is solved. The underlying idea is to reuse information; whether in

repeating a unit to generate a two-dimensional tiling design, or in reusing the general solution

to a class of differential equations.

8. Brief review of relevant literature and rationale for study (attach on a separate sheet references of approximately 6 key publications, it is not necessary to attach copies of the publications)

Mathematics is a science of patterns. The mind perceives connections and interrelations

between concepts and ideas, then links them together. The ability to create patterns is a

consequence of our neural development in responding to our environment. Mathematical

theories explain the relations among patterns that arise within ordered, logical structures.

Patterns in the mind mimic patterns in nature as well as man-made patterns, which is

probably how human beings evolved so as to be able to do mathematics. Mankind generates

patterns out of some basic inner need: it externalizes connective structures generated in the

mind via the process of thinking, which explains the ubiquitousness of visual patterns in the

traditional art and architecture of mankind.

Patterns in time are also essential to human intellectual development. Daily activity is

organized around natural rhythms. Annual events become a society's fixed points. Moreover,

these often link society to an emerging scientific understanding of ...