Architecture Class Sculpts With Equations

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Two hours spent dipping pipe cleaner armatures into bubble solution yielded valuable insights into minimal surfaces, like soap films and the surfaces of liquids, for University of Arkansas architecture and computer science students. In the process, they also learned about the mathematics of digital modeling, which is competing with ruler and pencil in conceptualizing and rendering two- and three-dimensional architectural representations.

Taught by architecture professors Lynn Fitzpatrick and John M. Humphries and mathematics professor Chaim Goodman-Strauss, the unique interdisciplinary course allowed students the opportunity to explore minimal surfaces by using Surface Evolver software and the School of Architecture's CNC router, a computer-controlled milling machine. Using equations input by the students, the CNC router carved forms from a variety of hardwood species as well as inexpensive plywood and housing insulation board. Some students milled molds to form shapes out of plaster, concrete and papier-mâché. The student projects will be on display at the Fayetteville Town Center May 8 - 18. The School of Architecture's commencement ceremony will take place at the Town Center on Saturday, May 10.

"There's a lot of contemporary work in architecture that's skirting around mathematics, philosophy and science that's outside the usual realm of practice," Humphries said. "We limited the scope of the course to make it workable, but there's much more to investigate."

Goodman-Strauss concurs: "the curl of a leaf, the cracks in the sidewalk - mathematics describes the forms around us. By gaining control of the math, the students gain control of the machinery. Mathematics is a wonderful design tool!"

The students produced strikingly original architectural models and screens, including a seven-foot-high hinged panel that transforms from wall surface to enclosure that Andy Kim formed by milling and stacking 1,350 plywood ribs and a birch screen created by Jena Rimkus and Maury Mitchell that is made up of six triangulated panels inspired by an aperiodic pinwheel tiling. Though they're original and beautiful - the holy grail of designers - the models are secondary to the course's main goal: to introduce mathematical principles into digital modeling.

"The products of digitally derived work are easy to criticize; they're different from what we've seen - blobs, and funny shapes," Lynn Fitzpatrick said, adding that it's hard to critique the process because it's so dependent on the software being used. "We want to try to harness the power and rigor of mathematical models in digital imaging techniques."

In addition to exploring abstract mathematical concepts for design inspiration, the course offered students hands-on experience with the CNC router, which translates software files into three-dimensional models. Relatively rare in architecture schools when the University of Arkansas purchased it three years ago, the router gives students an opportunity to manufacture work that would otherwise stay on a computer screen. The router presented challenges for the students and professors, frequently requiring numerous slow passes to carve out just one small part of a design.

"Like all machines, the router has limits, and that's where students learn about the manufacturing process, which is very important to their development as designers," Fitzpatrick noted.

All three professors hope to collaborate again in the future.