Lore and science in ancient Pythagoreanism

Wish to give a brief insight into the various field of research on dodecahedrons, their meanings and history. Here are some passages that I´ve found in Lore and science in ancient Pythagoreanism (Walter Burkert, Harvard University Press, 1972)

Metastadt (Metacity) Wulfen

Metastadt Wulfen was a modular architectural complex developped in the 60s by Richard J. Dietrich and built in the 1970s. It had 102 flats that could inhabit 400 people, steel elements formed the basic structure. Sadly, it was demolished in 1987 due to constructional defects. After all, it is still an example for modular building in Germany.

From above (source)

Amphibious Houses in the Netherlands

The inevitable rise of the sea levels puts water as human living space into the focus of attention. Dutch architects have created so-called Amphibious Houses that adapt to changing sea levels in the Netherlands. They are attached to the ground, but lift autonomously when sea levels are rising as they are built on floating foundations. This is a realistic possibility of facing changing conditions, instead of ignoring the climatical changes in our times.
Building on water in this case also means a return to a nomadic lifestyle: "You can move them along the river, and go to a city which is close to the river, and park your home there in a special harbor which is constructed for this type of boat," Zevenbergen, one of the architects, says. "That we call a nomadic way of living, that you can change the area where you live depending on the season or whatever."

Amphibious house near Maasbommel, NL (source)

Green Roofs - a wise building technique

Green roofs are old, very old. They are being used thousands of years. In Scandinavia, according to what I`ve read until now, they exist especially in Norway (Sami people) and the Faroe Islands. The Vikings used to build houses with lawned roofs which causes a good interior climate. Also the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon tell about gardens upon houses.
In general, green roofs have many advantages. For example, they store water, so that water gets in contact with the roof much later, which can prevent damage on pipelines. The most obvious advantage is the prevention of extreme temperatures in the interior.

Sami house (source)

Earth lodge (source)

Faroe Islands (source)

Green Roof building by Zaha Hadid (source)

16th century coloured engraving of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (source)

Dymaxion by Buckminster Fuller

Dymaxion was the name Buckmister Fuller gave several of his inventions. These were: a very futuristic car (planned 1933, aerodynamic teardrop form, three-wheeled, foldable, could be disassembled and re-assembled), Dymaxion Car:



...then a world map projected on a modified icosahedron, the Dymaxion Map:

Source

....and, among more others, of course the Dymaxion House. "A house designed for industrial reproduction":

Colour without pigments: Interference

Interference describes the appearance of colours without the existence of pigments. Instead, colour is created by multiple layers of light. A great variety of species in nature, metals and chemicals show this phenomenon.

The gemstone Labradorite

Mother of Pearl

Moonstone

Butterfly wings

...and the colibri, too....

Soap bubbles

Different butterflies reflect different colours

Video + text by The Naked Scientist (english)

Video about interference in general by Universität Heidelberg (german) 

Hemp Hemp Hemp!

Mme Perrier in France builds over 300 houses a year out of HEMP like in ancient egypt. Just watch the video, it´s amazing!

"What needs to be done?" - Buckminster Fuller

Video for "The Buckminster Fuller Challenge 2008"

14 ideas from biology

Tardigrades dry out completely but stay alive and regenerate (source)

Mussels as an example for timed degradation (source)

Strings of spider´s webs are extremely stable yet flexible (source)

Microbes neutralize toxics (source)

Fog basking beatle inspired architecture (source)

Lotus leaf detail. (source)

Colour without pigments: peacock (source)

Abalone shell: model for extremely strong material (source)

Transformation of CO2 like leaves? Source

1. Self-assembly. Example: Abalone shells. They are twice as tough as high-tech ceramics!  
2. CO2 as a feedstock. Turn CO2 into oxygen and carbonhydrates. Biodegrable plastics!
3. Solar transformations. Gaining fuel without platinum, but with common iron as plants do; mimicking the energy harvesting device inside of purple bacteria; 
4. The power of shape. E.g. Whale has bumps on his skin that increase efficiency -> guide for aeroplane wings (32% energy reduction)
5. Colour without pigments. Creating colour with shape via thin film interference. +
6. Clean without detergents. E.g. "Lotusan" facade colour, water bubbles remove dirt by mimicking bumps in leaf´s surface.
7. Quenching thirst.  Fog basking beatle gets water out of fog.
8. Metals without mining. Microbes extract metals out of water, can even neutralize toxics!
9. Green chemistry. Spider´s web consists of highly flexible but stable material. In 2010, german researchers have unraveled the secret behind the spider´s silk (Source)
10. Timed degradation. Mussles hold on to rocks no longer than 2 years before they dissolve.
11. Resilience and healing. Species like Tardigrades that dry out completely but stays alive for months could be model for damageable vaccines, so that vaccines no longer need to be refrigerated.
12. Sensing and responding. Why do insects not collide, while cars do 3.6 million times a year? 
13. Growing fertility. Waste water treatment, responsible farming etc. 
14. Life creates conditions conducive to life. Life has all the solutions: cleaning water, cleaning air.

Ideas taken from Janine Benyus´s talk at TED: Youtube link

D´Arcy Thompson

D´Arcy Thompson (1860-1948) was a great british mathematician and biologist, some call him the first "biomathematician". In his work "On Growth and Form", he analyzed biological appearances and processes with respect to physical and mathematical aspects. He paid particular attention to structures in tissues and cells, as well as to theories about transformation in related forms.

D´Arcy Thompson (via source)

His famous book "On Growth and Form" (via source)

Transformation of skulls (source)

Blood Vessels (source)

The word nature

The word nature is, in all european languages, feminine: la nature, die Nature, la natura etc. The very word "natura" in latin means "birth". Nature is verbally personified as "mother nature", in german "Mutter Natur", it is an archetype.
But along with the scientific revolution in the 17th century, nature became something dead, dead material, although even the word "material" derives from the same origin ("mater"-mother).

Indigenous religions and their respect for the planet

"In the indian way, we have a lot of respect for the natural universe, the earth, the sun, the moon. All our ceremonies are centered on this. When the sun rises, we thank her for the new day. When it rains, we thank for the irrigation of our plants. We believe that we as humans are only one part of the whole. And that we therefore are always in relationship with all other living species, even with plants and insects. 
Because the creator has placed them here for purpose." (Dan Old Elk)

"Ich verbinde mich ganz mit der Natur. Wenn ich auf einem Berg sitze, dann bin ich Stein, ich ruhe. Wenn ich durch die Steppe gehe, dann bin ich Gras, ich wachse, ich raschle, ich verdorre. Ich identifiziere mich vollkommen mit der Natur, und in dem Augenblick habe ich keine andere Aufgabe. Wenn ich Stein bin, dann bin ich einfach Stein, ich ruhe. Wenn du diese Fähigkeit erreicht hast, dann steht dir die Natur zur Verfügung." (Galsan Tschinag)


"Everything was created, then came the human being. So we are connected to everything. (...) The stone will connect with you, the water will connect with you, everything will connect with you." (Percy Conqobe)

Christianity as root of (all) environmental evil?

"God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)

Dominium terrae is the official term for this phrase. So, how does evaluation of christianity, its mission and spreading this idea all over the planet, look like in this context? Why did all "nature religions" (this term itself is obsolete, just to show its extreme reference to nature already in the nomination), that are so much older than christianity, care about nature in the most self-evident way?

Voronoi Diagrams

This diagram does not only look good, it also make a lot of sense in various contexts. The idea behind this diagram is the division of a space into smaller regions defined by points inside that space. The division is made by borderlines that have the smallest distance to the points. 

Leaf detail, via physics.utoronto.ca

Construction of voronoi diagrams (via http://www.pushpullbar.com)

Voronoi diagrams can occur in 2 and 3-dimensional spaces. So it´s possible to get 3dimensional structures based on a voronoi diagram, which I found a pretty amazing idea. Some examples:

via math.berkeley.edu

3d voronoi (via qhull.org)

The Japanese Metabolists

 Nakagin Capsule Tower (wikipedia.org)

Kisho Kurokawa Helix City (Floating City), via www.fgautron.com

In 1959, a group of architects came together to form the new movement called "Metabolists". Their subjects were the city in its urban context, the city in the upcoming mass societies, and creating architectural structures for people in these environments. The habitat should then be flexible and extendable to huge scales.
They understood architecture as a way to fulfill the needs of people in that changing society whose laws should be built on new laws of space instead of the old ones: form and function.
In light of this, totally new and modular architectural structures were created.

City in the air (via workjes.wordpress.com)

Archigram

„You can roll out steel – any length. You can blow up a balloon – any size. You can mould plastic – any shape. Blokes that built the Forth Bridge – they didn’t worry.” (David Greene)

What may have seemed like an inaccessible future for people in the 60s, has become reality- at least theoretically. The Archigram was an architectural movement initiated by a group of british Architecture students in the years 60-74 of the last century, and shows incredible futuristic work. They were frustrated about architecture at that time, so they created something totally new. Key characteristics are modularity, living space, community, futurism. 

The movement started with an exhibition and a magazine they printed on the cheapest paper available and sold it for 9 pence each. There were 6 architects (Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron, Michael Webb), and their creations must have been mindblowing at that time, but it was a time of radical changes in general: soviets had sent the first man to space, the Beatles released their first single "Love me do", Bob Dylan became popular, and there were radical technological novelties. 

Walking City (via tangentialvignettes.blogspot.com)

Plug-In-City (via essential-architecture.com)

Instant city (via popemup.de)

Reyner Banham: Megastructure (1976)

Someone else always has had your thoughts before, always. This was what came to my mind when reading about this book. Modular structures have such a strong affection to me at the moment, that I just cannot resist to read about them all.the.time. Well, they appear everywhere, and once you have begun to think about them, you cannot NOT see them in everything, everywhere.

The finest structures are made out of modules, which means, they are similar or equal, and they are a kind of holistic thing when put together, which means they form a new structure with new functions and new appearance, while still being each one singular for itself. 

What is so compelling to me, is the fact, that they can be extended without any limits. There is no visual, no logical border for their combinations, which is something I like, I cannot tell why. Imagine a modular structure that you build and you keep putting the modules together, and you have always more modules, and you keep building and building and.....

Cool.

Work in Progress...

The construction is now made out of several modules, which can be extended to any thinkable scale. The module itself is shaped as a dodecahedron, a platonic solid that embodies stability and is extremely efficient at the same time. There are so many things to say about the dodecahedron, it appears in various fields, in mathematics, science, biology,....I´ve written about it before and will surely write some more!

So, the dodecahedron will from now on be refered to only as "dc".

The basic module has the form of a dc, and can be extended to more bigger and complex structures. There are no limits to this, as it can be continued depending on its environment. It is even thinkable to have structures underwater, in the desert, on rocks, in the forest adapted to trees....

Each dc-module is sized to fit one person, there are two floors for living, sleeping and cooking. As a complex it can form a hotel, a student residence, a science lab, or anything you can think of that needs several individual spaces. But even if you only add some modules, it could create living space for a small community or a family. 

Harmonices Mundi, or: Scientists were not only scientists once

„Die Geometrie ist einzig und ewig, ein Widerschein aus dem Geiste Gottes. Dass die Menschen an ihr teilhaben, ist mit eine Ursache dafür, dass der Mensch ein Ebenbild Gottes ist.“

– Dissertatio cum Nuntio Siderio, zit. n. M. Caspar: J. K. (1995), S. 106

"The dodecahedron is left for the celestial body, having the same number of faces as the Zodiac has signs. It can be shown that it has the greatest volume of all the figures, just as the heaven encloses everything else."
  –  The Harmony of the World, Johannes Kepler, 1619