h

Fig. 3.6

Prisms in architecture:

(a) Castel del Monte in Bari by the Ho~ Roman Emperor Frederick II (around 1240).

(b) The Jewish Museum Berlin (1998' 2001) by Daniel Libeskind.

Platonic So ids

A cube is a special case of a cuboid whose faces are congruent squares. Gcometricaliy :.\ cube is a polyhedron with 6 square faces, 12 edges and 8 vertices. In each vertex of the cube three squares meet. All dihedral angles (i.e.. the angle between face~ chat meet in a common edge) are equal to 90 degrees. A cube has several symmetries clue can be used to reflect and rotate it (see Chapter 6) so thar it i always tran formed onto itself. A cube also has the propercy [0 be a convex polyhedron.

Math:

Convex sets. A set is convex if it contains with any pair of its points also the straight line segment connecting them (Figure 3.7). A polygon or a polyhedron is convex if it is the boundary of a convex set.

A regular polygon has its vertice equally paced on a circle uch that me nonoverlapping edges are of equal length. Examples of regular polygon' are me equilateral triangle, the square, and the regular pentagon. All regular polygon' are convex. Pyramids and prisms whose base is a regular polygon are convex polyhedra. If the base polygon is non-convex the pyramid or prism js a non-convex polyhedron.

Fig. 3.7

Convex and non-convex domains in 2D and 3D.

convex

non-convex

convex

non-convex

200 ~

3D

79

C I te ur elves [Q the allowing question: Are there any convex polyhedra mer th n (he lib with con ruent regular polygonal faces such that the same number e meet r each vert x: lhc nswer is yes and it can be shown that there are five

h (XlI hedral olid .1hc~ are called the Platonic solids (Figure 3.8), named after me neiem rec philosopher Plato (circa 428-348 BC). The five Platonic solids are

kn [he rerrahedron, the hexahedron (cube), the octahedron, the dodecahedron,

th Ie ahedron. The prdix in the Greek name of a Platonic solid tells us the

ber 0 f<ICc Ih It nuke up the polyhedron: tettares means four, hex six, okto eight, d (t/.:o I tweney. Because other polyhedra with the same number of

comm ,"I rrv the arne name, the Platonic olids are often distinguished by rd rr U/Jlr ro the name. In this section a "tetrahedron" always means a

AT trtrahfdnm nd the same applies to the other Platonic solids. Let us begin with n trucnon 0 p.lpCT model, of the Platonic solids.

r mOlle!, 0 the PI ! nle olids, We can construct paper models of the Platonic b fir t rr nglnS their a .es in a plane as shown in Figure 3.8. These "unfolded" cdr re r ut 0 p p r or c rdboard and then folded and glued togerher along If retr hcdron, we need our equilateral triangl ,for a cube, six squares, t he r n (I ht equilateral triangles, for a dodecahedron twelve regul

• ' . H

ns, nd t r n 1(0 ahedron, rwenr) equilaeeral mangles. Of course, [here are

!'tnt po ibllule ill uranging the face; of each Platonic olid 0 h

n a Cut-our s eet,

t tr. hedron

cub

octahedron

Fig. 3.8

The five Platonic solids are the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. We can build them out of paper using the shown cut-out sheets.

Fig. 3.9

The vertex pyramid of the polyhedron vertex v is formed by all edges and

faces J'o" ,

Inlng In v. We also show the

unfolded vertex pyramids.

How to find the five Platonic solids? A convex polyhedron i a Platonic solid if the following criteria hold.

• All faces are congruent regular polygons.

• At each vertex, the same number of faces meer.

Three is [he minimum number of polygons (and edges) that have to meet in a vertex v of a polyhedron. All faces and edges mat meet in I) form the vet'texpyramid. Note thar by vertex pyramid we mean me mantle of a pyramid and this pyramid may have a nonplanar base polygon (Figure 3.9). A polyhedron vertex is convex if the sum of angles between consecutive edges i less than 360 degrees. This is clearly the case for the cube (Figure 3.10) because we get 3·90 = 270 degrees for the three square joining in each vertex. [f we pur together four squares the angle is 4·90 = 360 degrees and all four squares are contained in a plane. Therefore, we do not get a spatial polyhedron. Five or more squares will not work either. Thus, the cube is rhe only Platonic solid made up of squares. Let us now use equilateral triangles instead of squares.

• Three equilateral triangles meeting in a vertex are allowed (3·60 = 180 degrees). We get the tetrahedron by adding a fourth equilateral triangle as a pyramid base (Figure 3.10). The resulting polyhedron has four faces, four vertices, and six edges. It fulfils [he previously cited criteria and is rhu Platonic solid.

• Four equilateral triangles meeting in 11 corner are also allowed (4·60 = 240 degrees). We obtain the octahedron simply by gluing together twO such vertex pyramids along their base squares (Fig 10). Again both criteria cited previously are fulfilled and we have derived another Platoruc solid. It has 8

faces, 6 vertices, and 12 edges.

vertex pyramids

convex

flat saddle shaped

cosahedron

dodecahedron

~ @

I

\

....

vertex pyramids unfolded

81

• Flv III [ ral trimgle meeting in a comer are the most we can achieve

(S.61) - .10 ) de rce }. But now we are not allowed to imply glue rwo such verte M rumids long their pentagonal ba es. The criterion would not be U1fillcJ fiH the b venice . It rums om that we have to connect two such fry r rnld II l,h b nd of 10 additional equilateral triangles (Figure 3.10) to obtain ~n lcosahcdron. Noll' born criteria hold again and we. have found a

unh PI (Om solid. It h 20 faces, 12 vertices, and 30 edges. Note that

tu Ily I crrex pyramids of the ico ahedron are fanned by live equilateral ami re con rucnt.

cub

r 2700

Fig. 3.10

How to derive the five Platonic solids using their vertex pyramids.

The next regular planar polygon is the regular penragon with live edge and an inner angle of 108 degrees. Because 3·108 = 324 < 360 degrees we can fonn a convex earner out of rhreccongruem pentagons. Then the dodecahedron i obtained by onnecting four such caps consisting of three congruent pentagons (Figure 3.10). Borh criteria are fuliilled and we have derived the fifth Platonic solid. It has 12 faces, 20 vertices. and 30 edges. If we put fOllr pentagons wgether, we have 4·, 08 = 432 > 360 degrees which no longer yields a convex corner.

Are there Platonic solids with regular polygonal faces other than triangle squares. or pentagons? The answer is no. The following explains why thi i the case. For a regular hexagon the face angle is 120 degrees and rhus three hexagon meeting in a corner are already planar (3·120 = 360). Since the face angles of the regular -gon. -gon, and 0 on are becoming larger and larger we can no longer fonn convex verte pyramid anymore.

History:

Platonic solids in higher dimensions. The mathematician Schliilli proved in 1852 that there are six polyhedra that fulfill the properties of the Platonic solids in 4D space. In spaces of dimension n = 5 and higher there are always only three uch polyhedra. The three Platonic solids mat exist in any dimension are the hypercube (n-dimensional cube), the simplex (n·dimensional tetrahedron), and the cross polytope

(n-dimensional octahedron).ln dimension 3 we additionally have the dodecahedron and the icosahedron. In dimension 4 there arc the 24-ceLL, me 120'ceil, and the 600·ull. We are all used to seeing2D image of3D objects. Similarly we can create 3D images of 4D objects. Such a 3D image of a 600- cell is shown in Figure 3.11.

1800

2

icosahedron

Fig. 3.11

Photo of a 3D image of the 600-cell at TU Vienna.

dodecahedron

Fig. 3.12

The eight different convex polyhedra that are made up of equilateral triangles. Only three of them are Platonic solids.

pol hedra b e fa e arc equilateral triangles. ote that mere are actually r II erent (10\0 polyhedra con Lo;ringofc:quilateral triangles. Three of them are

PI r m It I [I: rahedron, octahedron, and ico ahedron, The other five are no

regular nd have 6, 10, 12, 1 • and 16 equilateral trianguJar faces (Figure

12 lhq re obLiincd 3\ ollows. Gluing together two tetrahedra gives the first new

c Jumg together (\\00 pentagonal pyramids generates the second one.

pl&uln' rerrahedron InIO rwo wedges and stitching them together with a band of

l e tilIne!': I triangles } ield the mird one. Attaching three square pyramids to the

e a rrun ular pri m generates the founh. Finally. by attaching rwo square

to b nd of eight equilateral triangles we obtain the fifth one. ate that all due r IUCl [0 ether are men removed from the generated polyhedron.

rahedron

OG h dron

12

icosahedron 20

Fig. 3.13

Platonic solids and their duals. The

tetrahedro·· I

n IS se r-dual, The cube and

the octahedron are duals of each other. The same holds for the icosahedron

and the dodecahedron.

Properf es of atonic So ids

The faces of a Platonic solid are congruent equilateral triangles (tetrahedron. octahedron, icosahedron). or congruent squares (cube), or congruent regular pencagons (dodecahedron). Table 3.1 summarizes [he number of faces (j). me number of vertices ( v), and the number of edges (e) that form each Platonic solid.

Table 3.1 umber ofFaces. Vertices, and Edges Associated with Platonic Solids

The Euler formula. It is easy to verify thar for the five Platonic olids the number of vertices u minus the number of edges e plus the number of face /i alway equal to 2:

v-e+/-=:2.

This polyhedral formula, derived by the mathematician Leonhard Euler (1 07-1783). actually holds for all polyhedra without holes. We verify it for the pyramid with a

b +/- 5 8 + 5 - 2 In Chapter 14 we willlearu more about the

square ase: v - e - - -.

Euler formula and other so-called topoLogical properties of geometriC shapes.

Platonic Solid / v e
Tetrahedron 4 4 6
Cube 6 8 12
Octahedron 8 6 12
Dodecahedron 12 20 30
Icosahedron 20 12 30 ,

--\

8S

lid nd their duals. The face midpoints of each Platonic solid are the vntl e c. another PI toni olid, called the solid' dual (Figure 3.13). Let us first

J n e rh llu.tl of", tetrahedron, ach of the four vertex pyramids consists of wee cquU reral trlan le . Bccau e of the symmetry of the tetrahedron the three face mlJpmn« ofeJch vertex pyramid form anomer equilateral triangle.Thus, we again obuin ~ com ex polyhedron consisting of four equilateral triangles. Thus the dual of a

t trahedron is .It'.lin (miller) tetrahedron contain ed i th .. al

o ill e ongill one.

Ler U no I nve the dual fa cube. For each vertex pyramid of the cube (consisting

three con rucnt III rc~) we connect the face midpoints by an equilateral triangle.

Thu each vertc of (he: cube gives rise to an equilateral triangle (a face of the dual pol\ edron], nd each ace of the cube yields a vertex of the dual (which is the face

rrn rOIn! 0 the quare). Hence the dual of a cube consists of eight equilateral triangles th2t rm n octahedron. Obviously the number of vertices of a Platonic solid

correspond (0 the: number of faces of the dual and vice versa The b f d .

h L • num er 0 e gcs IS

me me or it Pwtonic olld and its dual ( ee Table 3 1) N th rh d

d th h . . ote at e odecahedron

n I 0 edron are duah of each other.

phere iar d ith Platonic olids Th he

J .• ere arc c ee spheres with th

tur I [J . h hie same center

e '" It eac P atonic solid (Figure 3 14) 0 h

U C5 (the ClrClllmp/'rrt') _L d ch " ne p ere COntains all

• UlC secon tou es all t: • thei

races in err face-mid . (th

rn, nd the third touches the edges at their d idooi I pomts e

~il e ge'm~ POIntS.

Pro . Th

p rnes, e vertex pvramids of . 1 PI

th • a smg e atoni lid

n nether. B) con ruction all f: c so are congruent

h . ace are congruent regula I

e [he rn length Thi _L_ r po ygons and thus

• IS means UJaJ; if we

h ve th 0110 n I.k .. ,[ want to construct a Platonic solid

... ' es.

\i c on~ n ed one rype of face. "cd e h.n e the S.lnielcngth. hcdihc:dr.tl

• Allvcr

ogles between neighbo . f

urmg aces are equal .

I") ramids are congruent.

Fig. 3.14

Each Platonic solid has three associated spheres with the same center. Here we show the circumspheres and the inspheres.

The Golden Section

The golden section. The golden section (also known as golden ratio or diuin« proportion) is the number

rp = (1+V5)/2 =" 1.618033989 ...

We obtain the exact golden section if we divide a line segment into two pans (a larger one oflength c, and a smaller one of length d) so that the following holds (Figure 3.15): the ratio of c and d is the same as the ratio of c + d and c. Stated another way. "larger to smaller as coral to larger." Formally. we write

c:d=(c+d):c.

If we use a new variable l' .= cl d we have l' =: 1 + 1/1' which leads to che quad ratic equation 1"- l' - 1 == O. The positive solution (1 +.,(5)/2 is the golden ecrion. Interestingly, the golden section can be approximated by the ratio of two successive numbers in the so-calledFibonacci series of numbers 1, 1,2,3,5,8.13,21,34 ..... Although 3:2 = 1.5 is a rough approximation of rp, 5 : 3 = 1.666 ... is already a little bit better. Cominuing in the same fashion we obtain better approximations. For example, the value 13:8 == 1.625 already approximates the golden ratio within 1 % accuracy.

The gorden rectangle. The dimensions of a golden rectangle are alway in the golden ratio rp : L To construct a golden rectangle, we start with a square of side length c. As shown in Figure 3.15 we obtain a larger gol.den rectangle wi th dimensions (c + d) : c

and a smaller one with dimensions c : d.

The Fibonacci spiral. Let us continue the above construction as follows. We divide the smaller rectangle into a quare of side length d and another golden rectangle of dimensions d : (c _ rl). If we continue in the same fashion the result i a whirling quare diagram. By connecting opposite corners of the squares with quarter circles we obtain

the Fibonacci spiral (Figure 3.15).

87

U' ton:

Ih elden ction in .Lrt and architecture. In art the n cuon h:J.1 been found in numerous ancient Greek r uro-In ludlng tho e by Phidias (filth century Be) narne III 1\ ted the choice of p as the symbol for the n. 'Ih golden ecrion also appear in paintings r m 1 cnn.mlo dol Vin i' Mona Lisa (1503) to 'P ilIOn" "II Rrd. YdlolJ/, ,md Blur (1921).

golden rectangle

/

C+d

In architecture it is argued chat the golden section waJ used in the Cheaps pyramid (around 2590-2470 B.C.), in the Parthenon temple (447-432 H.C.) in Athens, in the Pantheon (118-125) in Rome, in various triumphal arches, or in the facade of the Notre Dame cathedral (1163-1345) in Paris. In the twentieth century, Le Corbusier developed the golden-section-based modular system for architectural prcporticns and applied it in his famous building Uniti d'Habitation (1952) in Marseille (Figure 3.16).

Fig. 3.15

The golden section, the golden rectangle, and the golden spiral.

Fibonacci spiral

c

d

Fig. 3.17

(e) Modeling a tetrahedron by cutting it out of a cube.

(b) Modeling an octahedron by Choosing its six vertices as the unit points on the axes of a Cartesian system: (1,0,0), (0,1,0), (-l,O,O), (0,-1,0), (0,0,1), (0,0,-1).

Modeling the Platonic solids, CAD software oITen provide Platonic solids as fundamental shapes. If this is nor rhe case all five Plaronic olids can also be modeled in the following way. The most difficult part here is the construction of an i 0 ahedron and its dual, the dodecahedron-which exhibits a beautiful relarion to the golden rari .

• To mode:! a cube, we can use parallel extrusion of a square with edge length s in a direction orthogonal to irs supporting plane to a height s.

• To model a rerrahedron, we Cut it out of a cube as shown in Figure 3.17. The planar cuts generate a polyhedron whose six edges are dia~onals of the cube faces which are congruent squares. Thus, the new edges are of equal length. The four faces of the new polyhedron are congruent equilateral triangles. Hence the polyhedron is a tetrahedron.

• To model an octahedron (Figure 3.17), we select it six vertices as unit points on the axes of a Cartesian system: (1,0,0), (0, I ,0), (-1,0,0), (0,-1,0). (0,0.1), (0,0,-1). Alternatively we could also model it as the dual of a cube.

cutting .>»: - r;7 planes V

e/2 .f e/2

d

0.61...

c-d

tetrahedron

Fig. 3.16

Unit{; d'Habitation (1952) by Le Corbusier.

cube

z

89

• To In del an ico ahedron we use three congruent golden rectangles which we position mutually orrhogonal with coinciding centers in the origin as

~h \\ n in Figure 118. The rwelve vertices of the three golden rectangles have artesian coordinate (:1:,.:1: 1.0). (0. :I:~.± I). (:1:1.0. ±~) and are the vertices of an icosahedron of edge length s = 2.

• \'\'c model a dodecahedron as the dual of an icosahedron (Figure 3.18). lhe [Wtnt} face rnidpoi nts of the icosahedron are the vertices of the ~loJtcahcdron.

he ubc I~ the rna ; widel ' u ed Platonic solid in architecture. One unorthodox use is

lIu. rrared in figure 3.19a. The tetrahedron also finds irs way 'IOtO hi (F' .

b) . arc uecture 19ure

,19 • In material follo\\;ng we willieam how g d . h b d .

eo esic sp ere can e enved from

n ICO :!.hedron.

icosahedron

dodecahedron Z

Fig, 3.18

(Left) Modeling an icosahedron of edge length s == 2: The vertices of three congruent golden rectangles of width 2 and length 2'1' define the twelve vertices of an icosahedron.

(Right) Modeling a dodecahedron as the dual of an icosahedron.

Fig. 3.19

(a) The Cube Houses (1984) in Rotterdam by Piet Blom feature cubes with one vertical diagonal resting on prisms with a hexagonal base polygon. (b) The Art Tower (1990) in Mlto by Arata Isozaki can be modeled as a stack of tetrahedra.

Archimedean solids are convex polyhed(a that are consi ring of two or more types of regular polygons so [hat all vertex pyramids are congruent. These special polyhedra were known to the ancient Greek genius Archimedes more than 2000 years ago. As in rhe case ofPlaronic solids, all edge lenghts are equal in an Archimedean solid. Thus, the real difference is that more than one eype of planar face appears. . ach face rill has to be a regular polygon bur not all of them have to be congruent.

Olcpl-l) Icosahedron With side length 5=2

Corner cutting of Plaronic solids. By cutting off the venice of a Platonic solid we can generate some of the Archimedean solids. For a better wlderstanding of possible cuts we first discuss corner cutting (along straight lines) for regular polygons. For each regular polygon we can perform tWO different corner cuts so that we again obtain a

regular polygon (Figure 3.20):

• Type 1: Cuts that generate a regular polygon with the arne number of edges.

• Type 2: Cuts chat generate a regular polygon with twice as many edges,

Fig. 3.20

The two types of corner cuts of regular polYgons that generate another regular POI~gon. We illustrate the cuts for the eqUilateral triangle, the square, and

the regular pentagon.

corner cuts type 1

corner cuts type 2

91

Corner

\ cutting I

iCOsidodecahedron

Ihe fir t [)'pC (I CUt Pol' through the edge midpoinrs, and the econd type of cut has t be per ormed in II h it way char [he generated polygon with twice as many edges is In rc rul.rr, Wc an perform these rwo rypes of comer cuts for a Platonic solid in an n J guu Wll) and thu~ generate Archimedean solids. In we do so we cut off parts of Ihe ... me: ryr rnlds.

( orner CUl\ f type 1. 'r us Cart with CUG: through the edge mldpoinrs (Figure 3.21).

• fur a rerrah dron we chop off four smaller regular tetrahedra and what remain i an ct hedron, Thus, we again have a Platonic solid and not a new [ pc: 0 polyhedron.

• For cube. we obtain the o-called cuboctahedron consisting of six congruent uarcs (\I hlch remain from me six faces of the cube) and eight congruent trI;tngle~ (\\hich remain from the eight comers of me cube).

• If \IoC Cut off the; corners of an octahedron, we obtain a. polyhedron

h e f. res are clgnr congruent equilateral triangle (one for each of the octa on f. es) and six congruent squares (one Ieplacing each comer o the 0 .. t ih dron). Thi~ i again a cuboctahedron Indeed, b

. ycomer

cut In throu rh the edge midpoints dual PlatOnic solids generate the

'QmC pol h dron, This also holds for the dodecahedron and its dual, the I ahedron.

• Wlth plan.rr cuo through the edge midpoints of a dodecahed b .

I h J <1.11 ron we 0 tam

a PO) e ron I'. hose f.lees are 12 congruent r .. ,m 1 ( ~

h • h - ~6 ..... ar pentagons one for

ea 01 t e wcl v e F cc of the dodecahedron) and 20 '1

n n I ( congruent eqUl ateral

. one or (a b of the 20 vertices of the dodecahedron) Th d . ~ d

hedr . e enve

on I nown as the jcosidodaahtdron Its nam al h C'

be . e reve s t e ract that

, ·ncf.lted from an ico ahed .

d ~l [on via corner cutting th gh th

e nllupoint (Figure: 3.21). rou e

t trahedron

cube

octahedron

dodecahedron

Fig. 3.21

New polyhedra generated by corner cutting of Platonic solids with cuts through the edge midpoints.

icosahedron

comer CUttin

comer cutting

,

,

octahedron

cuboctahedron

2

Fig. 3.22

From the 13 Archimedean solids the seven named in this figure can be generated from Platonic solids via corner cutti n g. The class' c soccer ball is one of them.

cubeoctahedron

Corner cuts of type 2. With corner cuts of me second type we can senerare one further Archimedean solid for each of the five Platonic olids (Figure 3.22). Figure 3.20 indicates by means of a single face how we have to perform me necessary CUts that chop off parts of the vertex pyramids of each Platonic olid. Archirnedean solids generated by truncation are called truncated tetrahedron, truncated cube, truncated octahedron, truncated dodecahedron, and truncated icosahedron.

The truncated icosahedron is very likely me most recognized Archimedean solid because it is represented in the classic shape of a soccer ball (Figure 3.22). 111C same polyhedron was also named a buckyball by chemists. becau e it resembles me shape of the geodesic spheres of Buck minister Fuller which we study in the next ecrion. It can be generated from the icosahedron by corner cutting so that we chop off 1/3 of each edge on both edge ends. We generate for each of the 12 vertices a regular pentagon, and for each of me 20 triangles of the icosahedron a regular hexagon. Corner curring is a fundamental idea in generating new shapes from existing ones. We encounter this idea again in furore chapters including Chapter 8 (on freeferrn curves) and Chapter

11 (on freeform surfaces).

In total, there are 13 different Archimedean solids (Figure 3.22) other [han certain prisms and anti"prisms (discussed in material fQllowing). Three of the Archimcdesn solids even consist of three different types of regular polygonal face.

icosidodecahedron

truncated tetrahedron

truncated icosahedron (soccer ball)

t

truncated cube

truncated dodecahedron

truncated octahedron

93

Rem. rL:. Nore [hac the d ical definiron of an Archimedean solid is also fulfilled by I h pol hed,ron. Ie \!, II! found 2000 years after Archimedes by J. c. P. Miller and V. h rnuze, Ihis polyhedron i obtained by cutting a rhombicubocrahedron (the

pol hedron m.Hlc:d by an • in Figure 3.12) in half' b

. ' rotatmg one part y 45 degrees, and

chen g1umg the rwo parts together.

nit: Arc h irnedean '101 ids inherently closely resemble til L ~ f h .

h d . . c snape 0 a sp ere, wirh the

urr er mas~ that thc:~' can be made of struts of equal length. From Platonic solids

C derive polyhedr that re emble the hape of asph b

ere even erter, These are [he

C I phere and spherical caps of them are called geodesic do

meso

mple:

Pr"nl nd .,

ann-pri m that are

rchirnedean olid A' h

. pnsm w ose

tOp an I borrorn bees arc congruent r ul r pclln:!m Olnd whose ide faces

r uar I~ n Archlrnedean solid

( I ure .2'. top). Recall that for an

r hmlcd n 1111.1 all edge len ths

h ve to be e I A . g

qua. . n anti-prism has

cube

congmem regular polygons as bottom and top faces. The top face is a rotated and uanslated copy of the bottom face and born are connected b . f

. y a smp 0

mangles. If we use equilateral triangle we obtain polyhedra that fulfill the properties of an Arch' d

une ean solid

(Figure 3.23. bottom).

prisms

anti-prisms

Geodes· c Spheres

Ageodesic sphere is a polyhedron with an almost spherical structure. The name is derived from the facr that

• all vertices lie on a common sphere Sand

• certain sequences of vertices are arranged on great circles of S.

The great circles of a sphere are the shortest paths that connect two distinct points on a sphere, These shortest paths on a surface arc called geodesiCS. and thus the polyhed ra we study in this section are called geodeSiC spheres. All face of a geodeSiC sphere are triangles. However, not all of them are congruent. Geodesic domes are those parts

of geodeSiC spheres (Figure 3.24) that are actually used in architecture (Figure 3.25). Built domes range from sizes covering almost a full geodesic sphere to only balf a geodeSiC sphere. The latter are called hemispherical domes.

History:

attention and Fuller won the Gran Premio. Buckminsrer

In 1954 R. Buckrninster Fuller hrst displayed a geodesiC dome at the Milan Triennale-an international exhibition dedicated to

Fuller built several domes including a large one in Montreal (Figure 3.2 5) to house the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 1967, Fuller also proposed enclosing midtown Manhattan with a 2-m i le-

wide dome.

octah dron

present innovative developments in

atchitectu e desi ft

r, eslgn, era s, and city planning. The 42-foot

paperboard geodesic dome of Fuller gained worldwide

Fig. 3.23

Examples of prisms and anti-prisms that are Archlmedean solids.

geodesic sphere

hemispherical geodesic dome

Fig. 3.24

A geodeSic h

ge d. sp ere and a hemispherical

o eSIC dome.

9S

momb c dodecahedra

honeycombs

Fig. 3.31

Examples of space filling polyhedra: rhombic dodecahedra and honeycombs.

Space Filling Poly

edra

Obviously me cube is a space-filling polyhedron. Thls means that we can stack congruent cubes and completely fill 3D space with them. Actually, the cube is the only Plaronic solid that has this property. Nevertheless, there are other polyhedra that have the space-filling property. One example is the following: [f we add quare pyramids

of height 5/2 to each face of a cube with edge length s, we obtain a o-called rhombic dodecahedron (Figure 3.31 a). All faces of a rhombic dodecahedron are congruent rhombi which are non-regular polygons of equal edge length in the form of a shear d

square.

Let's examine why the rhombic dodecahedron is also a space-filling polyhedron. We take a cube and attach six congruent cubes to its faces. Replacing these six cube by rhombic dodecahedrae, the initial cube is completely filled by six congruent pyramidal parts of the adjacent rhombic dodecahedrae. Thus, if we replace in a space-filling assembly of cubes every second cube (in a 3D checkerboard manner) wirh a rhombic dodecahedron, we find a space-filling by dodecahedra. pace-filling polyhedra appear in nature (e.g. as regular six-sided prisms that form the building blocks of honeycomb,

Figure 3.31b).

It is of course possible to fill space with non-congruenr polyhedra, although it become much more complicated to do this in a meanjngfui way. For practicaJ applications we sometimes want to fill a certain volume with polyhedra. For simulation purpose.~ one

Fig. 3.32

Volume filling tetrahedra (image Courtesy of Pierre Alliez).

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en u. terr.ihedra (Figure 3.32). One recent example in architecture that employs p (.tilllng polyhedra f varying shape is rhe National Swimming Center in Beijing (I,· IfC JH). n rchirecrural de ign thar employs polyhedra derived from so-called \' r n I eel I ( cc Chapter I~) is shown in Figure 3.34.

Polyhedral Surfaces

Fig. 3.33

Volume filling polyhedra in architecture: National Swimming Center in Beijing ..

If a smooth surface is approximated by a polyhedral surface we at 0 speak of 3 discrete surfoce. In architecture discrete surfaces are of special interest in me realization of a design.

Approximation of cylinders and cones by polyhedral surfaces. The first idea is ro take a smooth cylinder surface and replace it with a strip model (Figure 3.353). We can also divide each Strip into planar quadrilaterals. The same holds for a cone surface. Figure 3.35b shows a Strip model and a model with planar quadrilateral. Note that the quadrilaterals are planar because twO opposing edges are lying in the arne plane by

construction.

Fig. 3.34

An architectural deslqn based on Irregular space filling polyhedra (image courtesy of B. Schneider).

Fig, 3.35

Approximation of cylinders and cones by polyhedral surfaces.

(a) Simple strip models.

~b) The strips are further subdivided into planar quadrilaterals.

(e) s·

rnce 1991 the Melbourne Shot

Tower is e d .' .

overe by a 84m high COnical

glass roof d . .

eslqned by Klsho Kurokawa.

strip models

models with planar non-congruent quadrangles

---- - --

f mpl:

" mudd of the courtyard roof of the bbe in

in the middle and two congruent conical sections at either side. The circular arc c is the base curve of two adjacent surfaces. Then, a parallel extrusion generates me lin dri 1.

cy rica

parr-and a central extrusion with vertex v generates the conical one. The

eumunsrer, The previous Idu. w ~ used 10 cover a rectangular Ire b g_ curved roof with planar glass panel, in an intere ting way (Figure \. 6.l), The ~h pc of the roof consists

- three p. rrs: 01 cylindrical ecrion

cylinder surface is approximated by congruent planar quadrilaterals using the generators of the cylinder.

Ifwe approximate the conical pans by planar quadrilaterals using the cone generators, the outcome might be undesirable (Figure 3.36b). However,

if we use a different decomposition into quadrilaterals, they are no longer planar. Thus, to realize this design with planar glass panels one has to su bdi vide each nonplanar quadrilateral into tWO triangle (Figure 3.36c).

Fig. 3,36

(a) The courtyard roof of the Abbey in Neumunster (2003) by Ewart-Haagen & Lorang Architects built by RFR.

(b) A design only using the generators of the cylinder and the cones.

(~) An alternative design that dlscretlzes the conical parts into triangles.

conical part

cylindrical part

v

105

In n r I, he approximation of 3. fn:eform shape by mangles is much simpler than by

pI polygun. hi folCt I intensively used in computer graphics, in which objects

e de omp" d 1OtO mangle. (e.g. for rendering purpo es, recall Chapter 2). In

f humu!e. frccform· hapc arc enjoying increased popularity. For the design of roofs c n rucred ~ \[Cd-ilnci-g1m structures ?tich planar panels, the simplest polygons are rr gles (1-1 rurc 3.37).

Fig. 3_37

The Zlote Tarasy (polish for "Golden Terraces") in Warsaw by Jerde Partnership International opened in 2007. The freeform shape roof is geometrically a polyhedral surface with triangular faces (images courtesy of Waagner-Biro Stahlbau AG).

Fig. 3.38

Shape approximation by polyhedral surfaces applied to Michelangelo's

David (image courtesy of Pierre Alliez).

Whereas three vertices of a triangle in space are always conrained in a ingle plan ,

this need not be the case for four or more points. The design of polyhedral freeform surfaces with planar faces other than triangles is a difIicul[ [ask that is a rapic of current research. As illusrrated in Figure 3.38, computer graphics has already developed algorithms for the approximation of arbirrary shapes by polyhedral surfaces. However. these methods generate a variety of diflerencly shaped planar polygons and thus may not be the best solution for architectural design. Therefore, in Chapter 19 we study a different approach that better meets the needs of architecrure,

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