Geometry_in_Islamic_Architecture

Exercises

Projects

University of Washington
Department of Architecture, Spring 2001

[Computational] Geometry in Islamic Architecture

Instructor: Mamoun Sakkal

Lecture Schedule

Week 1 (March 27 and 29)

Introduction to courese content, instructor, and students’ goals.
Introduction to Islam and Islamic architecture

Week 2 (April 3 and 5)

Introduction to Geometry and Symmetry
Geometry and Computers

Introduction to Turtle graphics.
Drawing of basic shapes in Turtles: Rectangle, triangle, circle, plygon, free shape.
Drawing shapes with variables.

Week 3 (April 10 and 12)

Two Dimensional Geometry: Tilings and patterns
Star patterns in the Middle East and North Africa

Point symmetry resulting in star patterns.
procedures.
Freize symmetry resulting in band patterns.

Week 4 (April 17 and 19)

Zillij tile patterns in Alhambra and North Africa
Tile patterns in Iran and Central Asia

Plane symmetry resulting in tiling patterns.
Recursion and iteration.

Week 5 (April 24 and 26)

Three Dimensional Geometry: Polyhedra and packing of space
Building proportions and proportion systems

Introduction to FormWriter.
Modeling basic shapes in FW: Line, triangle, box, cylinder, cone, sphere.
Conditionals

Week 6 (May 1 and 3)

Star Ribbed Domes: History
Underlying mathematics and new variations
Arch Nets: History, Modern developments

Modeling Star Ribbed Domes.
Modeling Arch Nets.

Week 7 (May 8 and 10)

Muqarnas: History
2D representation systems
3D models as study and documentation devices

Modeling Muqarnas blocks.
Modeling Muqarnas block families.

Week 8 (May 15 and 17)

Arabesque
Calligraphy

Individual student projects

Week 9 (May 22 and 24)

Cosmology, aesthetics, and other cultural aspects

Week 10 (May 29 and 31)

Students’ project presentations