Tag Archives: buildings

Jul 31 2013

Holidays!

Milan Cathedral – photo by Sophie Young

So, visiting Milan and wandering round the lovely Cathedral (one of the largest in Europe) I was struck by the geometry all around!

This week – in holiday mode some interesting sites on Mathematics and architecture:

From Tripbase, 9 Most Mathematically Interesting Buildings in the World and from Flavorwire, 10 Amazing Examples of Architecture Inspired by Mathematics. There is some overlap between these two lists, both mention quite rightly the cathedral in Barcelona Designed by Antoni Gaudi. For some great mathematical photos from Barcelona – see these previous two posts.

Barcelona - Cathedral

Barcelona – Cathedral – photo by David Young

For some further reading Plus Magazine has an article on Perfect buildings: the maths of modern architecture by Marianne Freiberger.

Marcus du Sautoy’s, Maths in the city site includes a suggested tour of London which looks at networks, geometry, resonance, curves and topology through the medium of chalk, sweeties, slinkies and rope!
The London tour includes St Paul’s Cathedral, John Shortt has written a Maths trail for Saint Paul’s, the ideas from which could also be used for other buildings.
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WolframAlpha can be used for information on buildings. Note the different types of queries possible – simply type in the name of a building for information, for example see Eiffel Tower or enter two buildings for a comparison. It is also possible to look up properties of buildings, did you know that the Empire State Building has 102 floors?!
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A great resource on TES for when we get back to school is Laura Wilson’s Plans and Elevations, a PowerPoint of images showing the plans and elevations of some famous buildings.