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The Subsymmetry Analysis and Rule-Based Synthesis of John Portman’s Midnight Sun

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Abstract

The symmetry properties of John Portman’s 1968 Midnight Sun cocktail bar are discussed in detail. A special emphasis is given to subsymmetry analysis to decompose the multiple layers of symmetry groups in the polyrhythmic design and to relate them to a foundational project in Portman’s corpus, the 1964 house Entelechy I. This analysis informs a rule-based interpretation of the cocktail bar as a transformation of the hollow column prototype developed in Entelechy I. These findings are specified formally in the Midnight Sun grammar, a shape grammar implemented in a shape rewrite technology called Shape Machine. The implementation is then used to produce a series of variations featuring a range of symmetry groups. These outcomes and their implications for design generation as well as insights into Portman’s design principles are discussed to conclude the paper.

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© 1965 Alexander Georges, courtesy The Portman Archives

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© 1968 William A. Barnes, courtesy The Portman Archives

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Notes

  1. The Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, GA, USA was the tallest hotel in the world in 1976, the year it was built. It was surpassed in 1977 by the central hotel tower of the Renaissance Center in Detroit, MI, USA, also designed by John Portman and Associates.

  2. The lobby of the Hyatt Regency at Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, CA, USA holds the Guinness World Record for the largest hotel lobby in the world (as of 2022).

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr. Athanassios Economou for his inspiring lectures on Architectonics at the School of Architecture, College of Design, Georgia Institute of Technology and in Greece and Italy in our work developing the Architectonics Study Abroad Program: he has provided much of the background on symmetry lessons upon which this paper is based. This work is further enhanced by the team developing the Shape Machine technology – the development is led by Tzu-Chieh Kurt Hong in collaboration with Athanassios Economou, Heather Ligler, and James Park. The software is developed in the Shape Computation Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology.

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  1. Department of Architecture, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Heather Ligler

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  1. Heather Ligler
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Correspondence to Heather Ligler.

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Ligler, H. The Subsymmetry Analysis and Rule-Based Synthesis of John Portman’s Midnight Sun. Nexus Netw J 25, 409–437 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00004-022-00644-6

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