The Mathematics of Architecture: Building by Numbers (review)

Leonardo Reviews 337 CD-ROM version is also available), Tops, and Toccata for Toy Trains; but equally amazing are less familiar titles such as The Black Ships (which uses nineteenthcentury prints to recreate the Japanese perception of the arrival of Admiral Perry) and Blacktop (which consists of abstract patterns formed by water on an asphalt schoolyard). These are delightful , unparalleled films that need to be regularly, commonly shown to students of art, architecture and design. (Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, Winter 1998–1999). THE MATHEMATICS OF ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING BY NUMBERS VHS color video, 25 minutes, 1997. Distributed by Films for the Humanities and Sciences, Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543, U.S.A. Tel: 800-257-5126. WWW: . Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50613-0362, U.S.A. E-mail: . This is a formal, clear and quiet look at the historic uses of “harmonic proportions ” in architectural design. In such systems, there is a proportional resemblance among the parts of a structure, and between any one part and the entire structure. Among the best-known examples are the classical villas of the Mannerist-era Italian architect Andrea Palladio and applications in this century by the Swiss Modernist Le Corbusier of his Modulor system. As the film demonstrates, the latter based his system on the Golden Section (a ratio of about 5 to 8) and a related sequence of numbers call the Fibonacci Series (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and so on), while the former may also have used a series of numbers that expand systematically (6, 10, 16), which he probably derived from the music of the sixteenth century . Students of architectural and design history will enjoy the archival footage of Le Corbusier, as well as a concluding interview with the contemporary Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, whose Parc de la Villette in Paris attempts to represent systematically the complexities and contradictions of postmodern society. (Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, Winter 1998–1999). MATERIALS RECEIVED Multimedia Products Form Function in Architecture R. Thomas Hille. 2-volume CD-ROM. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A., 1999. Audio Compact Discs 1970–1973 Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co. Cuneiform Records, Silver Springs, MD, U.S.A., 1999. Hidden Reflections: Chamber Works Lior Navok. NLP, Boston, MA, U.S.A., 1998. Horde Mnemonists. ReR/Recommended, Surrey, United Kingdom, 1999. Hyperpiano Denman Maroney. Mon$ey Music, Monsey, NY, U.S.A., 1998. Radiophagy Lou Mallozzi. Penumbra Music, Grafton, WI, U.S.A., 1997. Whole or by the Slice Hal Rammel and Lou Mallozzi. Penumbra Music, Grafton, WI, U.S.A., 1998. Books Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism Rudolf Wittkower. Academy Editions/Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1998. 160 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 0-471-97763-2. Art and Innovation: The Xerox PARC Artist-in-Residence Program Craig Harris, ed. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1999. 264 pp., illus. Trade, $35.00. ISBN: 0-262-08275-6. Bachelors Rosalind Krauss. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1999. 222 pp., illus. Trade, $29.95. ISBN: 0-262-11239-6. Depth of Field: Essays on Photography, Mass Media, and Lens Culture A.D. Coleman. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A., 1999. 197 pp., illus. Paper, $15.96. ISBN: 0-8263-1816-9. The Digital Evolution: Visual Communication in the Electronic Age A.D. Coleman. Nazraeli Press, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A., 1999. 184 pp., illus. Paper, $19.96. ISBN: 3-923-92252-3. Information Design Robert Jacobson, ed. MIT Press, Cambridge , MA, U.S.A., 1999. 353 pp., illus. Trade, $35.00. ISBN: 0-262-10069-X. Marcel Duchamp Dawn Ades, Neil Cox and David Hopkins. Thames and Hudson, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1999. 224 pp., illus. Paper, $11.96. ISBN: 0-500-20322-9. Melodic Similarity: Concepts, Procedures, and Applications (Computing in Musicology II) Walter B. Hewlett and Eleanor Selfridge Field, eds. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1999. 235 pp., illus. Paper, $28.00. ISBN: 0-262-58175-2. Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound: An...