Architecture and mathematics : Between hubris and restraint
Abstract
The introduction of calculus-based mathematics in the 18th century proved fatal for the relationship of mathematics and architecture. As Antoine Picon, Professor of History of Architecture and Technology at Harvard Graduate School of Design, highlights, when geometry was superseded by calculus it resulted in an ensuing estrangement from architecture, an alienation that has persisted even with the widespread introduction of computation. It is a liaison that Picon characterises as having shifted between hubris and restraint.