Unit 17
2 3 5 7 11 13 17 Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Níall McLaughlin, Michiko Sumi
The Bartlett School of Architecture 2017
Year 4 Naomi Au, Jinman Choi, James Greig, Julia Scheutz, Mai Que Ta, Sam Tan, Esha Thapar, Krystal Tsai Ting, Torris Kaul Varoystrand, Alexander Wood, Eleni Zygogianni Year 5 Malina Dabrowska, Juwhan Han, Carl Inder, Vasilis Marcou Ilchuck, Oscar Plastow, Henry Svendsen, Christie Yeung Thank you to our Design Realisation Tutors James Daykin and Simon Tonks Thank you to our invited speakers who introduced us to mathematical concepts related to philosophy, design and computation: Adam Beck, Mario Carpo, Sean Hanna Thank you to Maciej Czarnecki, Edward Denison, Joanna Leman and Gdynia’s Foreign Relations Department for their support during our field trip in Poland Thank you to our critics: Alessandro Ayuso, Julia Backhaus, Anthony Boulanger, Gillian Brady, Barbara-Ann Campbell-Lange, Nat Chard, Claire Chawke, Sophie Cole, Marjan Colletti, James Daykin, Lily Jencks, Anna Liu, Jack Newton, Jessica Reynolds, Henning Stummel, Peter Thomas, Mike Tite, Simon Tonks, St John Walsh, Victoria Watson, Mika Zacharias. Consultants: William Whitby (ARUP), Hareth Pochee (Max Fordham)
Unit 17 takes a progressive and experimental approach to architecture that is specific to place and culture. Our work develops through open inquiry. It is founded on the recognition that the architect works both as scientist and poet, being equally engaged in empirical analysis, abstraction, speculation and invention. Last year, our theme was time, linked with place and history. This year we took a different take on the same subject to explore its more mathematical aspects: periodic and cyclical rhythms, simultaneity, chance and alternating systems in the fabric of our landscapes and urban environments. We explored the spatiality of some of the most fascinating mathematical ideas embedded in nature, inside our bodies, and in the multitude of networks that condition our cities and daily lives. Mathematical concepts have shaped our perception of the universe and the evolution of the cosmos since the Babylonian era. They influence and explain how animals, landscape, people and politics interact. They model contemporary global systems, commodification, finances, communications, data and workflows, climate, the human brain, social infrastructures, health and population statistics. They condition nature, governance, economy and human experience. Contrary to the view that sees mathematics exclusively as abstract and the basis of science, we were interested in the role that mathematical structures can play in shaping everyday experiences and the spectrum of human creativity across fields: from natural philosophy, biology and quantum physics to architecture, literature, painting and music. Think about Bach, Theo van Doesburg, Jorge Luis Borges and Ryoji Ikeda; and architects from the Ancient Egyptians to Palladio and Xenakis. Can a contemporary study of mathematics that is not reductive, utilitarian or sacred push architecture to novel directions? One of our questions was to understand architecture’s association with digital mathematics. Avoiding the simplistic acceptance of parametricism on the one hand and its severe criticism on the other, we searched for the spatial, social and aesthetic consequences of mathematical ideas in deeply performative and experiential projects. Mathematical Forms: During term 1 students produced drawing notations, performative models and large-scale installations exploring mathematical forms influenced by: the Transfinite, PvNP, Calculus, Chaos Theory, Prime Numbers, Combinatorics, Rhythmanalysis, Klein Bottle, Stochastic Processes, the I Ching, Game Theory, weather forecasting and Epigenetics. Nested Rhythms: We travelled from Cracow, the Tatras Mountains and Warsaw to Szczecin, Gdynia and Gdansk on the Baltic Sea. Students recorded rhythms, whether embedded in urban or rural areas, rivers or social media platforms. They chose sites for their building projects, shifting their attention from mathematical abstraction to architectural proposition.
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