“Nature delights in transformations”- Newton

imagesThompson describes the framework for the text, stating that the study of science is not alone dependent on mathematics, nor is it simply to be viewed as unexplainable, divinely created phenomena. His criticism is that both the scientist and the naturalist, among others, attempt to explain the natural world with a limited focus. The intent of this text is to foster a more diverse approach to the study of the concepts of growth and form from a mathematical perspective. Thompson, states that “numerical precision is the very soul of science.”

Thompson pointed out – in example after example – correlations between biological forms and mechanical phenomena. He gives various examples of animals and plants in nature, how their form can be interpreted through mathematical relations. For example, the difference between the bones of a Sheep, Ox and a Giraffe is the transformation of the bones in x and y direction. He also showed the similarity in the forms of jellyfish and the forms of drops of liquid falling into viscous fluid, and between the internal supporting structures in the hollow bones of birds designs. Thus every organic form is the transformation or deformation of another. In the case of leaves ,fruits, vegetables or even the human kidney, have a point of arrest from which they grow into their resultant form. From various species of plants or all organisms in nature represent simple mathematical geometry. It can be summarized also as proportions of the original figure on a new plane. The consistency of the deformation is the crucial point here: it is obvious that any fish form could be made to look like any other fish form, if it were sketched on a perfectly deformable elastic sheet and stretched in many directions at once. But Thompson showed that if the sheets were stretched in one particular pattern, then a new species form would be generated. Thus nature proceeds from one type to another among organic as well as inorganic forms and they vary according to their own parameters and are designed by physio -mathematical conditions of possibility.   While Deleuze and DeLanda think differently . They believe in a bottom-up or rhizome system where each individual at any scale is capable of altering the whole although the extent may vary and the end result may even be unintentional.Thompson also made a critic to the study of Darwinian evolution because it has not taught us the actual links between animals group; he concludes  that no one straight line of descent, or of consecutive transformation, exists.

Therefore how far  mathematics will suffice to describe, and physics to explain, the fabric of the body, no man can foresee.Thus I conclude growth and form cannot co-exist without each other.They share a part and whole relationship and our directly proportional to each other.

Possible topic of research:

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Can growth and form co-exist without each other?Is the growth of every city directly proportional to the character that shapes it?If everything can be mapped mathematically is it the beginning of evolution of digital computation?


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Parametricism: A Style or A set of digital tools ?

 

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Over the years Parametric design has taken a big leap from being just a set of digital animation techniques to advanced parametric design systems and scripting techniques.But this tool has helped close period of uncertainty that had been prolonging over the years, and had a series of short lived movements such as Postmodernism, Deconstructivism, and Minimalism.
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Growth and Form

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DíArcy Thompsonís On Growth and Form, argues that the form in nature and the changes of form are due to the action of force.

An extraordinary optimism is evident in this work, presenting a vision of the physical world as a symphony of harmonious forces. Thompson conceived of form not as a given, but as a product of dynamic forces that are shaped by flows of energy and stages of growth.

To understand this first we have to know that forces is everything that in reality influences PARTS and structure. Parts can be understood as cities, buildings, element, joints etc.

Forces, are the initial condition that produces the motion and the particular transformations of form.

In this work Thompson aimed to unite physics and biology through an analysis of the physical limitations to the growth and structure of organisms.And how matemathically this is produce , by generating an alternative of paths and this paths can be generate into types in futher to reach the definition of form.

An extraordinary optimism is evident in this work, presenting a vision of the physical world as a symphony of harmonious forces. Thompson conceived of form not as a given, but as a product of dynamic forces that are shaped by flows of energy and stages of growth.

He took two (or more) related forms, and tried to determine whether one could be produced from the other by some simple transformation.in a analytical way by using mathematics in a way of understanding the obtained form generated for deformation of the axes compounding the whole structure.

 

He also explains by his “theory of transformation” ,that one species evolves into another not by successive minor changes in individual body parts but by large-scale transformations involving the body as a whole.

Leading us to questioned ourselves why can we  explore structural systems in architecture that use tension and ‘tensegrity’, in which forces animate the entire structure.

Realating these to architecture nowadays theres a question that might be done and debated , by introducing all these principles that Thompson has giving us in the deformation and growth of form , The architecture of motion prioritizes form over space , shouldn’t these been seen as a whole itself ? are  we been able to change even with all the tools nowdays theses style of formal conception ?

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D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson: On Growth and Form. 1917

D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson: On Growth and Form. 1917

Chapter XVII: On the Theory of Transformations, or the Comparison of Related Forms.

 

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www.darcythompson.org accessed on 23.11.13

 

In this chapter, Wentworth continues with the study of the inter-relations of growth and form, and the part which physical forces play in this interaction. He explain the theory of Transformation using mathematical methods like the plane coordinate system to describe and define the form of organisms. He talks about how you can start describing the shape of an object using words of common speech, but at the end you will use the language of mathematics, mixing words and symbols, which are characters of geometry, to reach the definition of “form”. Even with limitations and controlled and regulated freedom, it is possible to reach mathematical analysis to mathematical synthesis, this will allow you to discover homologies or identities between the organism and its forms. Read More »

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Development of the Cybernetic Era: Technologic Humanism

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How do you build a Learning Machine?

In 1968, the idea of computer aided participatory design was a  foreign concept for architects. The typical architectural office was comprised of people sitting and standing composing construction and design documents in front of large desks from morning till night. An Architectural theorists, Nicholas Negroponte, at this time was theorizing about what the world would be like if architects had machines that could compute, process, and share information. Negroponte was thinking about creating a system where the computer would be capable of handling the small details as well as helping the architect manage all aspects of a large scale project. Thus, allowing the designer/user/architect to focus more on the important aspects of the design. 20 years before advanced computer aided design systems and software was designed, Negroponte was asking questions. Can a machine learn about architecture? Can machines learn about learning about architecture? Can a machine be designed to repeat tasks? Yes! Can they associate courses of action with goals? Can they be self improving?  Simultaneously being ethical?

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