“3D Thinking” Pages 187, 274: Using close-packing circles to create surface designs, during the early years of Islam, requires a method to generate different close-packing circle arrangements. The dynamic sphere geometry provides such a method. Applying the geometry, starting with a 5-circle arrangement within the unit triangle of a square, generates many arrangements including the […]
“3D Thinking” Page 187: The animation below shows the Arabian “close-packing” circle method that was used to create the window design of the 1356CE Madrasa of Amir Salf al-din Sargatmish in Old Cairo, Egypt. The design method dates back to the Abbasid period – a time of great creativity. The development starts with (i) a […]
“3D Thinking” Pages 67, 75, 77, 210 to 213: Ideas of “Divine Proportions” originated in the distant past. For the Pythagoreans whole numbers resonated throughout the cosmos in sacred music, in geometry and in number. For the Harrapans of the Indus Valley they found expression in fire altars of different shapes but of constant areas […]
“3D Thinking” Pages 183 to 186: An example of the Ray Method – one of the six primary methods used to create Arabian designs during the early Islamic period – during the Abbasid Caliphate 566-653CE. In the animation one arm of a “10-Ray” is used to position a “6-Ray” – then on the intersection of […]
“3D Thinking” Pages 280 to 289: The drawing shows an example of how a Golden Ratio “Ideation Lattice” is derived from the “Dynamic Sphere” geometry – and then how an architectural structure is extracted from the lattice. In this example, connecting sphere centers creates the lattice. The sphere packing is the “Golden Ratio” packing. Software […]
This new rogerburrowsimages.com icon shows the relationship between Le Corbusier’s ‘man’ and the “Golden Sphere” packing generated by the author’s “Dynamic Sphere” geometry. The packing generates three-dimensional “ideation lattices” from which design, art, and architectural forms can be extracted. As much as DaVinci’e “Vitruvian Man” represents a “whole number” proportionate system that dates back to […]
“3D Thinking in Design and Architecture from Antiquity to the Future” – Thames and Hudson – published April 2018. Amazon UK; Amazon USA; Waterstones UK. UKP 39.95. 328 pages, over one thousand illustrations and photos. INDEX: Visual Logic 14. Neolithic Geometries 32. The River Cultures 58. The Americas 106. The Pythagoreans 124. European Tribal Geometry 160. Geometries […]
We went to visit an old friend of mine, Nancy Stetson, in Boulder, Colorado, two weekends ago. About thirty-five years ago Nancy asked me if I would design an art studio, to be built on the foothills just above Boulder. This I did using one of the geometries that I had developed and that generated […]
I have been working on my latest book, “The Arabs,” – a new title in the “Geometry Through Time,” series. I’d like to share an idea originally formed in the 1960’s, and that I have been further developing for “The Arabs”; that of the possible use of the ABJAD system to store coded messages in […]
Mathematicians working within the Islamic culture, from about 900 AD, often used geometry to communicate ideas, instructions, and even to send messages using the Abjad numerological system and the numbers of sides of polygons, rosettes, and other design forms, to encode words and meanings. Walking into the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, for example, is, […]
