First Topic: Mind and Body Interface Revisited
Author: Mounjia Abdeltif
School of Architecture of Algiers, Algeria
Title: Heritage is teaching: the « Turning » house.
Twentieth century seems to be a period of big failure in matter of architecture and urban
design, almost everywhere in the world. In the thirties, CIAM philosophy stated that the
housing place will be a machine. They decided for all societies that function will be the basis
of design of forms.
These thoughts led to reduction, poverty of forms, simplification and divorce with LAWS OF
NATURE. After Second World War, people lost the ability to dwell (Heidegger, M.) and to
inhabit houses. Every body accepted to live in a “unit” without soul or any sustainable
quality. No more complexity, holistic ideas disappeared. Buildings are rigid and dead.
Today the world is getting more aware of this reality. Scientists are willing to connect in order
to rebuild a web of knowledge and to go back to genuine and timeless way of building
(Alexander, C.). Consequently, heritage is becoming a great treasure in most countries.
They are valuing, preserving and restoring a lot of buildings and cities of the past. Memory
and culture are the truest wealth.
In nature, in all scale (visible and non visible) everything is moving and turning. Galaxies,
sun and earth, moon and earth, design of flowers, plants, fruits, DNA, etc. In Islamic tradition,
people turn around Kaaba seven times. Turning movement has an esthetical potential like
DNA molecule which is a helix. Beauty is related to golden proportion present in most natural
organisms.
In our research, we have been studying the eighteenth century house of Algiers. At different
scales, from the whole shape to the drawing of a ceramic tile, its design is a “turning” form:
sculpture of doors, arrangement of rooms around the courtyard, twisted columns, spirals
everywhere, etc. Golden proportion is governing the construction. Its name is “DAR”,
coming from “DAARA”, which means “to turn”! Now, we can understand why the feeling of
beauty is so objective and so direct. Our brain is made to accept mathematical beauty that
comes straight from deep laws of eternal nature. The future design of architectural places must
refer and learn from timeless rules that have always kept our universe in movement.
Keywords: heritage, fractals, belonging, movement, house, timelessness.
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Mouvement
Immobility
Immobility
Scheme of the traditional house of Algiers: a helical design.
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In nature, in all scale (visible and non visible) everything is moving and turning. Galaxies,
sun and earth, moon and earth, design of flowers, plants, fruits, DNA, etc. In Islamic tradition,
people turn around Kaaba seven times. Turning movement has an esthetical potential like
DNA molecule which is a helix. Beauty is related to golden proportion present in most natural
organisms.
« The drop of water knows that it is inside the ocean; but does it know that the ocean is inside
her?”
Oriental old saying
“We live for the sake of beauty, what is left is: waiting”. Khalil Gibran
1- Problematic
Actually, “How can we design “immobility” as an answer to “everything must move”?
Because when, meanwhile, more things and subjects move, some things do not move at all”, is
the best problematic and introduction to our work.
When architects evaluate ancient architecture that became world’s heritage, they must look for
hidden rules. These rules have the strength and power to generated wholeness and genuine
objective beauty. At that time, builders were using golden proportions, Fibonacci mathematics
and other natural measuring systems at all scales. What happened in the meantime? What’s
wrong with our cities and our architecture? Is Modernist ideology (Charter of C.I.A.M., 1933)
guilty or should we go back to other historical circumstances and socio-economical events
like industrial revolution?
2- Theoretical Framework
These twenty last years, in schools of architecture, everywhere in the world, theoretical
projects start to gain awareness about “immobility” of designed places. People are developing
a lot of methodological processes that take Natural Forces in account. Many fields like
computer sciences, building sciences, urban design, architecture and some human sciences are
using fractals in generative processes.
Fractals are, hopefully an efficient way to explore architectural places as a scale between
macro and micro (from universe to DNA). Multiplicity of scales, symmetries and hierarchy,
help researchers to escape from reductive methods that generated rigid and dead urban spaces.
Fractals are a new science; they are not a new knowledge. A lot of researchers re analyzed
well-known buildings designed by Viollet-Le-Duc, Andrea Palladio, Antonio Gaudi, Le
Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. They found out that they used fractal geometry in their
design even if they did not have computing tools. Some artworks made by famous painters
like Leonardo Da Vinci, Mondrian and Salvador Dali also used fractals in paintings
composition.
Today, since computer science is so performing, scientists can go faster in their discoveries
and works. Movement is easily perceived while using models and simulation experiments.
Architectural design is able to show clearly how space can be built with harmony and
objective rules, using “the timeless way of building” (Christopher Alexander, 1979).
Moreover, holistic science orders to admit and work with the idea of DNA: The part is in the
whole and the whole is in the part. The concept of “belonging” can at last be scientifically
demonstrated. The only way to understand the quality of living organisms is to use the theory
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of complexity. A local complex system could not be decomposed or disconnected from the
global system it belongs to. Otherwise the intelligibility and wholeness would break.
3- From cell to galaxies:
It is important to say that these two extreme scales do not have limits. Only human knowledge
is limited while evolving. Man has always been trying to understand natural phenomenons. He
invented tools and explored life from the infinitely small to the infinitely large. But
knowledge doesn’t have limits. Sciences should help scientists find God (Christopher
Alexander in “Nature of Order”, 2003).
Biology is not an isolated science according to the fractal logic (auto similarity and symmetry
of scale). Biological morphogenesis is related to phenomenon of the whole structure of
Universe (James Gleick).
Sun has generated galaxies which exist because of him. Sun and planets are connected in a
whole system. One needs the other for sustainability and existence. Planets are related and
sustain each others. This organization is true until DNA molecule in all living organisms.
Universe is a whole fractal system where each part occupies a specific and precise place in
order to sustain the large field-like structure (Christopher Alexander, 2003): the diagram of
forces (D’Arcy Thompson).
This living world keeps constantly moving. Actually, each part is moving around a centre.
This system is isotropic or stable because it is moving that way.
4- Movement
Concerning universe, the most interesting law is ROTATION. This action is related to space
and time.
Galaxies are spiral movement
DNA
M= E/T (movement is space divided by time)
Laurent Nottale found out the theory of “fractal space/time”. Definitely, from macro scale to
micro scale, universe is a fractal system. All rotations are connected and no separable like
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sewed in a strong whole diagram of forces. Each fractal structure generates the next one and
the new one, auto similar, will announce the next one. Galaxies and cells belong to one
system: Our complex Universe.
5- Our universe is “lazy”:
Two basic laws are sufficient for its life and evolution:
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Universal resistance (cosmic constant R: the cause): it is absolute.
Universal attraction (cosmic constant G: the effect)
Since these two laws iterate constantly, the universal structure is actually FRACTAL. The
more change occurs, the more it is similar. Whatever the scale is, structure resembles.
Iteration or repetition or resonance is the same concept. One referential iterating structure
proves that our universe is lazy.
We can now make a statement: fractals and isotropy are the same.
There are two types of resonance: one coming from waves and the second coming from
rotation of objects.
6- About helical shapes
“Helical shapes, symbolizing ascension while turning, have always fascinated people”,
Claude Piguet, the “father” of “helicates”. He worked on DNA molecule which is a double
helix. Scientists have found out the shape of DNA for sixty years.
We can notice today that from galaxies to micro organisms, the turning movement is an
evident reality.
Between these two scales, there are all human perceivable territories.
If ancient builders were using nature in their design, what probably were their references?
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The nautilus: this spiral is constructed on the basis of golden number (1, 618)
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The pine cone: Fibonacci series is identified,
-
-
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The “romanesco” cauliflower: spiral arrangement,
Sunflower:
Daisy flower
Dahlia
-
Ananias
A plant
These are few examples of mathematical arrangements in Nature. In the nineties, the
scientists’ researchers, Couder and Douady could design computerized models of plants
design.
A double spiral !
Finger prints and auditory system: their morphogenesis is based on spirals.
7- Golden Proportion (1, 618)
Behind spiral and helical shape there is the most mysterious mathematical phenomenon: the
Golden proportion. This proportion is divine and regulates our whole universe, at all scales.
Obviously, for thousands years, old civilizations used this proportioning system. When
builders wanted to reach eternal and objective beauty, they used it in their architectures:
Pyramids in Egypt, Taj Mahal in India, Parthenon in Greece, etc.
Parthenon in Greece
Cheops pyramid
Modulor
“Nature is mathematical”, Le Corbusier (he invented the Modulor, a measuring system based
on the golden proportion.
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Even DNA, 5th symphony of Beethoven and sonatas of Mozart are based on Phi, golden
number. When aesthetic rules use this number as basic measure that comes from laws of
Nature, beauty emerges through unfolding processes.
Since all subdivisions of human arm are related with golden number, they form THE
measure inside the FOOTSTEP. Two arms equal one footstep. In ancient times builders used
to use tools that correspond to these proportions.
The golden rectangle
In Arts, famous Renaissance artists used this golden proportion (Leonardo Da Vinci and
others).
Conclusion:
Fibonacci series and golden proportion are tools that mathematicians gave to humanity in
order to design works of Art which have the power to make genuine beauty emerge and create
an emotion felt by all human beings through senses and brain.
All traditional architectures in our world are valuable places that people admire and respect.
We have to go back to their secrets and think about future rules for our contemporary cities
where the most serious crisis is ugliness.
8- The “turning” house (DAR1) of Algiers (18th century: Ottoman Era)
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This arabic word comes from the verb « daara » which means: to turn.
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At the scale of the house, the central courtyard with its surrounding gallery is the
heart of the whole system (ref. the scheme that shows the plan).
The rooms are arranged in a spiral organization around the courtyard.
The walls of this courtyard are the actual façades of the house. In Moslem societies, beauty is
expressed in interiors. Exterior walls are humbly designed. Inwardness is a value and a
concept. Materials are noble (ceramics, marble, wood, iron) and arrangement are made with
refinement and taste. In this rich interior, we could find golden proportion everywhere:
heights and widths at different scales. When we live in this intense space, we feel the
movement of spiral and the ascension toward the sky (open courtyard). From the ethical point
of view, ALL families have the right to be connected to the sky.
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At the scale of the centre (“West Ed Dar” in Arabic), twisted columns look like DNA
molecule.
These columns could be built with stone or marble. At that time a lot of house owners use
to order their columns in Italy. Italian craftsmen were sending them by boat. At the top of
these columns, there are 8 spirals recalling roman arrangement. History is complex.
Civilizations learn from each other’s and make architecture and art progress over time and
space.
When we live in this magic place (the courtyard), we are surrounded with turning shapes
everywhere.
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At the scale of a door, the design of sculpture is exactly the plan of the house:
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At the scale of a tile, the design is helical.
9- Concluding remarks:
The “turning” shapes are appearing at different scales: IT IS A FRACTAL phenomenon.
Interiority is a basic concept in Muslim societies. It suggests a special geometry: the
SPIRAL.
The “DAR”of Algiers in 18th Century is A PART of our universe according to the fractal
theory.
Spiral is an infinite movement around a centre. Our universe is fractal and
contains a lot of turning bodies. It is moving through physical simple laws: attraction and
resistance= rotation. On earth, all living organisms are connected. They follow the same laws.
Complex phenomenons of life are not all visible from a human eye.
If architecture uses these natural laws, it is then connected to the universe; therefore it
becomes a frame for timeless quality of life. Over time, civilizations have a basic thing in
common: GOLDEN PROPORTION. Designers must use this valuable tool in order to recover
the objective beauty that we lost during the twentieth century, in Architecture and Arts.
For our societies, genuine beauty is the most serious therapy:
“Beauty will save the world”, Leon Tolstoy
10- References
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Alexander, C. (1978). The Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford University Press.
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