Abstract
The development of computational algorithms for the transformation of geometry made the process of producing curvilinear forms deceptively simple. However, historically the production of intricate architectural forms was undertaken by designers who were aware of the cultural or symbolic connotations of such forms. For example, the construction of the archetypal Baroque compound curve was a clear response to the social, symbolic and phenomenological needs of the era. Thus, the construction of these curves could be said to have an ethical function in terms of their support for a dominant set of social values. The present paper analyses a series of examples wherein computer generated curvilinear geometric forms have been produced, to interrogate the extent to which such techniques could be seen as being ethically sound. Through this analysis the paper argues that geometry in architecture is more than simply a formal tool, but rather it is a device which has wider significance and more important properties and potentialities.
First published as: Michael J. Ostwald , “Ethics and Geometry: Computational Transformations and the Curved Surface in Architecture”, pp. 77–92 in Nexus VI: Architecture and Mathematics, Sylvie Duvernoy and Orietta Pedemonte, eds. Turin: Kim Williams Books, 2006.
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Notes
- 1.
A problem with virtue theory, and its architectural application, is that it is asynchronous with many contemporary values. Virtue theory tends to be derived from traditional or normative western thought. Virtue theory should not be dismissed for this reason alone but it does have more in common with historic approaches to architecture than contemporary computational ones.
- 2.
A counter argument would be that, historically the social contract was never as widely accepted as architectural scholars would like to believe.
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Ostwald, M.J. (2015). Ethics and Geometry: Computational Transformations and the Curved Surface in Architecture. In: Williams, K., Ostwald, M. (eds) Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00143-2_43
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