Fractal Geometry as Design Aid

Carl Bovill

Abstract: From Charles Jencks in England to Itsuko Hasegawa in Japan, there is discussion in the architectural press of chaos, fractals, complexity theory, and self-organization. Architecture and design should be informed by and express the emerging scientific view that the world around us is more chaotic and complex than previously thought. However, the architectural response has a tendency to be fairly shallow. Twists and folds and waves, jumps in organizing grids, and superposition of different ordering systems are used to express in architectural form the new scientific ideas about complexity. These are moves in the right direction toward connecting architecture with contemporary cosmic concepts. However, knowledge of the mathematics of fractal geometry can provide a path to an even deeper expression.

Keywords: fractal geometry, architecture

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