Cellular Architecture – One

      When I was a student of Architecture, I experimented a lot with different kinds of forms. I designed a museum with a free form, which means with no straight lines or sharp angles. It had only smooth curves for walls and ceilings. The only thing straight in it was the floor! I also loved creating efficient design by combining different shaped polygons which created voidless packing e.g. an octagon and square. For my under-graduate dissertation I did an extensive study to analyze how forms derived from the crystalline morphology can be adapted for human habitation. Part of this research was continued during my post-graduate years.

      Although it was a very extensive research, the gist of it got published in an Architectural journal. This post covers the article. Due to multiple reproductions, the photos in the magazine lost their shadows. For the sake of this post, I have scanned the original research papers and substituted the faded ones with these. Hence you shall see that the first two sheets are pure white, whereas the rest are off-white. Also I had analyzed many different categories of polyhedra in this research, e.g. Platonic, Prisms, Anti-prisms etc. This article highlights only one category namely Archimedean polyhedra. I may put further posts in this blog later, to cover the other categories.

      When you see the off-white papers, bear in mind that it was in the late 1980’s, hence every drawing has been hand-drafted, the text is hand written. How much times have changed now! By creating this post, it is my intention to share my research with anyone who might be interested in this field.

Ratna