Nexus Network Journal 13,1 Architecture and Mathematics

The Spring 2011 (vol. 13 no. 1) issue of the Nexus Network Journal features eight papers that resulted from the 2010 Nexus conference section on Shape and Shape Grammars. Guest editor Lionel March provides an introduction for the entire group. The papers were selected to spread themes as widely and representatively as possible. George Stiny provides a keynote paper with theoretical insights, while other papers range from pedagogical applications in the architectural studio to shape language and style in classical Chinese architecture; from shape grammars and descriptions used to ‘decode Alberti’, to their use as an aid to the rehabilitation of housing stock in Lisbon; from the creation of a design system involving a parametric shape grammar with descriptions to generate urban block layouts within a defined spatial region, to a novel example of a kinetic shape grammar simulating human body movements. Among the authors are George Stiny, Mine Özkar, Andrew Li, José Duarte, Rudi Stouffs,Mario Krüger, Filipe Coutinho, José Beirão Alexandra Paio, Benamy Turkienicz, Sara Eloy, Maria da Piedade Ferriera, Duarte Cabral de Mello, and others.

KIM WILLIAMS, JOÃO NUNO TAVARES and JOÃO PEDRO XAVIER. Nexus 2010: Relationships Between Architecture and Mathematics.- Letter from the Guest Editor.- LIONEL MARCH. Forty Years of Shape and Shape Grammars, 1971–2011 Shape and Shape Grammars.- GEORGE STINY. What Rule(s) Should I Use?.- SARA ELOY and JOSÉ PINTO DUARTE. A Transformation Grammar for Housing Rehabilitation.- JOSÉ NUNO BEIRÃO, JOSÉ PINTO DUARTE and RUDI STOUFFS. Creating Specific Grammars with Generic Grammars: Towards Flexible Urban Design.- MINE ÖZKAR. Visual Schemas: Pragmatics of Design Learning in Foundations Studios.- M. PIEDADE FERREIRA, DUARTE CABRAL DE MELLO and JOSÉ PINTO DUARTE. The Grammar of Movement: A Step Towards a Corporeal Architecture.- ALEXANDRA PAIO and BENAMY TURKIENICZ. An Urban Grammar Study: A Geometric Method for Generating Planimetric Proportional and Symmetrical Systems.- MÁRIO KRÜGER, JOSÉ PINTO DUARTE and FILIPE COUTINHO. Decoding De re aedificatoria: Using Grammars to Trace Alberti’s Influence on Portuguese Classical Architecture.- ANDREW I-KANG LI. Computing Style.- DIRK HUYLEBROUCK, ANTONIA REDONDO BUITRAGO and ENCARNACIÓN REYES IGLESIAS. Octagonal Geometry of the Cimborio in Burgos Cathedral.- MARGARIDA TAVARES DA CONCEIÇÃO. Translating Vitruvius and Measuring the Sky: On Pedro Nunes and Architecture.- ARTURO LYON and RODRIGO GARCIA. Interlocking, Ribbing and Folding: Explorations in Parametric Constructions.- MUSTAPHA BEN-HAMOUCHE. Fractal Geometry in Muslim Cities: How Succession Law Shaped Morphology.- SYLVIE DUVERNOY. Review of La prospettiva a 180° e oltre. Il punto di vista di Emilio Frisia by Liliana Curcio and Roberto Di Martino.