Geometric Structures as Design Approach

Abstract

The creation processes of artists and architects are often seen as a throw of the genius. Looking for methods in designing remain a question for research in architecture and other creative disciplines. Geometry as the science to capture, develop and generate structures and forms can give a scientific methodical background for designing. Thinking in structures is part of the understanding of mathematics as a general structural science. Works of art and architecture developed on the basis of geometric structures had been analyzed. The chosen examples are related to tessellations and polyhedra. Those examples include studies on the works of the artists Olafur Eliasson and Gerard Caris as well as architectural works of Richard Buckminster Fuller, Konrad Wachsmann, and Anne Tyng. Exploring those examples reveal necessarily profound knowledge in the relationships and characteristics of tessellations and polyhedra. Students’ research studies and design projects demonstrate an actual workability of such a geometric structural approach in architectural education.