Form Generation and Evolution

Abstract

This chapter investigates the creation of CAD models of three-dimensional forms according to the foundations established in Chapter I. The syntax used in generating models of architectural forms is the same as that used in creating geometrical forms, especially in computer-aided design, where any architectural configuration is defined initially by its geometric interpretation. Forms in architecture and in geometry clearly have two different semantic contents. As already emphasized, while geometric forms exist in “intellectual space” and are subject only to logical relations, architectural forms deal with the constraints of the physical world as well as functional requirements. Nevertheless, at the syntactic level, architectural and geometric forms can both be investigated in terms of their descriptions as sets of points, lines, and surfaces in three-dimensional space, and how they determine a series of perceptual dualistic relations, particularly those of solid-void and inside-outside.

Ubi materia, ibi geometria

Johannes Kepler