Connections Between Mathematics, the Arts and Architecture

by Nicoletta Sala, Gabriele Cappellato (Contributor), Mario Botta (Contributor)

The purpose of this book is to analyze the interdisciplinary aspects of mathematics and geometry in reference to nature, art, and architecture. In Chapter 1, we introduce symmetry and its different meanings. Chapter 2 explains how proportions, and in particular, the golden section, has introduced aesthetic canons that have strongly influenced many artists like Polycletus, and architects, from Ictinus to Le Corbusier. In Chapter 3, we discover how curves and spirals find their application in artistic works, for example in Mycenaean jewelry, and architectural works, from the Baroque of Francesco Borromini to the Land Art of Smithson. Chapter 4 presents the importance and influence that Platonic solids and polyhedrons have had on philosophy and art through different historical periods and different cultures. Chapter 5 describes surfaces, discovering how different cultures have used them in different manners, including Roman aqueducts, iron bridges, and finally arriving on modern structures that base their forms on hyperboloids and paraboloids. In Chapter 6, we introduce fractal geometry, as a geometry that tries to explain nature’s irregular shapes, trying to overcome the limitations imposed by "old" Euclidean geometry. We also analyze how fractal geometry has influenced architecture in this century.

289 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2019