Below are two examples of athroisis. The first is a building designed by Antonini Darmon called Arches Boulogne. The images are available here at ArchDaily. I found the following quote very instructive with regards to Fractal Design: The width of these balconies varies according to their orientation; they are narrower to the north thus maximizing illumination. However to the South, East and West the arches provide shade against natural overheating in summer. Athroisis is an effect. The causes are multiple, just as in nature. In this case, while the intent was to vary the lighting, the result is still a…
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Once on a trip across the country, my plane was flying across a cloudless sky. Up ahead I could see a flat layer of clouds. From a distance, the clouds looked like someone had unrolled a carpet in the sky. The cloud was one, single blanket that abruptly started and continued for miles. However, as we passed over the layer, it became clear that there was no fixed border for the clouds. In fact, the edge became porous, and thinned as it moved outward. Each portion of the fringe had a sculpted look that resembled the main border. The edge…
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In my previous post on Order and Disorder, I discussed the idea that Nature is perceived as disorder because, when left on its own, it will destroy our created works. But nature is a fractal system, so it is not really disordered. Perhaps one could say that the fractal, chaotic system of nature is a superset of our Euclidean system. As it has all the advantages of a living system, it will eventually overtake our own artificial environment. When looked at this way, the natural and artificial realms are simply two different systems. We know intuitively that, when utilized with…
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Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (formerly known as the Experience Music Project) was designed by Frank Gehry. The inspiration behind the building was a smashed guitar, in honor of Seattle’s Jimi Hendrix. Gehry purchased several electric guitars, sliced them into pieces, and used them as building blocks for an early model design. Three-thousand panels, made up of 21 thousand individually cut and shaped stainless steel and painted aluminum shingles, encase the outside of the building. Their individual finishes respond to different light conditions and appear to change when viewed from different angles, reminding audiences that music and culture is constantly…
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The 20th Century architect, Marcel Breuer designed and built the St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville, Minnesota (near St. Cloud.) Breuer states that ‘this cast-in-place concrete marvel is a stepping-stone in modern design of religious architecture in the United States. One must admire the great concrete trees that support the ceiling and the dominant bell banner that shields the church.’ The church is a technological feat as well. Incorporating a massive use of cast and steel-reinforced concrete, it was fundamentally constructed by local carpenters who made the forms into which the concrete was cast. The large bell banner at the…