Ebook: Architectural Morphology: An introduction to the geometry of building plans

Just sixty years ago the architect and writer W R Lethaby called for a programme of theoretical work on the geometry of architectural plans, which would as he said "... cover the field by a systematic research into possibilities". "The possibilities of walls and vaults, and of the relations between the walls and the cell, and between one cell and another, want investigating, as Lord Kelvin investigated the geometry of crystal line structures and the 'packing of cells'."

This book is the first introduction to an area of research which has grown up over the last ten years, and which has begun to answer Lethaby's call. The author shows how, given suitable geometrical definitions of certain classes of plans, systematic methods can be devised for enumerating all possible plans of each type. Particular attention is devoted to plans consisting of rectangular rooms, set within rectangular boundaries---so-called rectangular dissections---since the plans of many actual small buildings, especially houses, approximate to this kind of geometrical arrangement.

Computer methods for generating rectangular dissections are described in some detail and classes of plans with other geometries are also discussed. Mathematical techniques are introduced for the representation of plans and their properties, and, in particular, topological properties of the adjacencies between rooms are represented by using the theory of graphs.

The author goes on to show how these plan-generating methods, and the catalogues of plans which they can produce, may be applied in three areas: in design, in building science, and in the study of architectural history. Design methods are described by which it is possible to enumerate exhaustively all plans for small houses or apartments, conforming to given adjacency and dimensional requirements. In building science, applications of this morphological work are suggested to the study of circulation and environmental performance, to the subject of adaptability and flexibility in plans, and in the formal classification of building types. In architectural history, connections are discussed between this approach to the representation and classification of historical plans, and their interpretation in terms of construction, social function, and artistic style.