By presidential decree of November 29, 2011, the State Prize of Ukraine for Architecture for 2011 has been awarded to Radoslav Zuk, Emeritus Professor at the McGill University School of Architecture. As leader of the design team, Prof. Zuk was awarded the prize for the design of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the city of Lviv.
Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, Lviv, Ukraine
Radoslav Zuk participated in Nexus 2004 in Mexico City, presenting a paper entitled "From Renaissance Musical Proportions to Polytonality in Twentieth Century Architecture". He will be present once again at Nexus 2012 in Milan to discuss "Three Musical Interpretations of Le Corbusier's Modulor".
Many, many congratulations to Architect Zuk. Nexus is proud to have such a contributor, as well as a good friend!
Nexus Network Journal contributorDirk Huylebrouck has been officially named "Mad Professor" for his experiment with a footrace run clockwise. The 400m reverse experiment took place on Friday 16 September during the Diamond League athletic meeting in Brussels.
Dirk described his interest in this way: "Actually, I became interested in this topic through architecture: why do some buildings twist to the right, others to the left? No architect ever reasoned about this, it is just done "out of the blue"... Calatrava for instance says he was inspired by the human torso for the torsion in his Malmö tower, but that only pushes the question further: why did he choose a human torso that turned to the right?
You can watch the reverse 400m on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojMR7u6rhTs
NNJ contributor and scholar of archaeoastronomy Giulio Magli has collaborated with CNN on a report from Giza on why the pyramids were given their particular location. The link to the video, which was broadcast world-wide on CNN on Friday, 2 September, is:
http://backstory.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/01/the-revealer-revealed/
Prof. Magli, of the Politecnico di Milano, and member of the scientific committee for Nexus 2012, which will take place in Milan 11-14 June 2012, discussed this in his paper in NNJ vol. 11, no. 1 (Spring 2009). You can read his article in the Nexus Network Journal at Springerlink.com.
Congratulations to Prof. Magli for this fascinating report.
Nexus authors have been busy! I'm very pleased to send news about five new publications by authors who are part of the Nexus community.
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Branko Mitrovic presented a paper at Nexus 2004 in Mexico City. His new book, literally hot off the press, is Philosophy for Architects (Princeton Architectural Press, August 2011, ISBN 978-56898-994-5). The influence of philosophy on architecture has been manifest for centuries. Here, Mitrovic links philosophers from Plato to Derrida to architects from Palladio to Philip Johnson. More information on the Princeton Architectural Press website. |
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Tessa Morrison presented a paper at Nexus 2008 in San Diego about Villalpanda's reconstruction of Solomon's Temple. Her new book, Isaac Newton's Temple of Solomon and his Reconstruction of Sacred Architecture (Birkhauser, August 2011, ISBN 978-3-0348-0045-7) shows a surprising and unexpected facet of the great scientist. The book can be previewed on the Springer Link website: click here. |
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Ivan Tafteberg Jakobsen has been an welcome participant at many Nexus conferences. His new book, ANTONI GAUDÍ. Geometrien bag arkitekturen (Matematiklærerforeningen, ISBN 978-8790996437, in Danish), is a beautifully illustrated textbook on geometry and architecture for secondary school students. More information is available here. |
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Mathematicians Lionel March (Nexus 2002 in Obidos and Nexus 2010 in Porto) and Stephen R. Wassell (almost as many Nexus conferences as Kim!) teamed up with Kim Williams (director of the Nexus conferences and editor-in-chief of the Nexus Network Journal) to produce The Mathematical Works of Leon Battista Alberti (Birkhauser, ISBN 978-3-0346-0473-4). |
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David Speiser, a very active participant in the first 4 Nexus conferences, beginning in 1996, combined his career as a quantum physicist with a lifelong interest in the history of art. This new volume, Crossroads: History of Science, History of Art (Birkhauser, ISBN 978-3-0348-0138-6). A first volume of his collected essays on the history of mechanics is followed by this second collection, edited by Kim Williams, on relationships between science and art. It includes his paper "Architecture, Mathematics and Theology in Raphael's Paintings" presented at Nexus 2000 in Ferrara. The book can be previewed on Springer Link: click here. |
Congratulations to these authors! We'll be looking forward to reading reviews of these books soon in the Nexus Network Journal !
Vertical Seaside, Amalfi coast workshop
parametric design & digital fabrication
24-31 July 2011
Vietri sul Mare, Amalfi Coast, Italy
The Second Edition of the International Workshop on Digital Fabrication and Parametric Design will take place from 24 to 31 July 2011 in the city of Vietri sul Mare, the gateway to the Amalfi Coast. The planning workshop, based on manufacturing processes of digital and parametric design software (Rhino / Grasshopper), will be held by the founders of Co-de-it Andrea Graziano and Alessio Erioli.
The event is open to all those who want to learn the knowledge and how to perform the most innovative design methodologies existing The Workshop also enjoys the Digital Med University participation 'of Thessaly in Greece, Faculty of Architecture in Naples, the Order of Architects Province of Salerno and the National Builders.
Interested parties may download the Notice of Competition at the address www.digitalmedworkshop.com and fill the pre-registration no later than July 15th 2011.
The Associazione Edoardo Benvenuto has announced two days of study in honour of Edoardo Benvenuto, 7 - 8 June 2011, at the Faculty of Architecture, Genova.
The program for Tuesday 7 June includes the awards for 2009 and 2010 of the Premio Edoardo Benvenuto to Federica Ottoni, Matthew J. de Jong and Carlo Guastini. The highlight of the day will be this edition of the Benvenuto Lectures, to be given this year by Werner Oechslin of the ETH-Zurich.
Wednesday 8 June features a day dedicated to:
Archi e costruzioni in muratura: eredità dei contributi storici e ricerche recenti
including talks by Antonio Becchi, Piero Villaggio, Salvatore D'Agostino, Mario Como, Luigi Gambarotta, Andrea Bacigalupo, Stefano Bennati, Riccardo Bassotti, Danila Aita, Antonio Tralli, Elio Sacco, Anna Sinopoli, Massimiliano Lucchesi, Miroslav Šilhavý, Nicola Zani, Silvia Briccoli Bati.
The program in .pdf can be downloaded by clicking here.
Full details are available at: http://www.associazionebenvenuto.org/html/news0.html
I'm very pleased to send news about two new publications by authors who are part of the Nexus community.
Marco Frascari, who presented a paper at Nexus 1998 in Mantua, has recently published Eleven Exercises in the Art of Architectural Drawing (Routledge, March 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-77926-5). Subtitled "Slow Food for the Architect's Imagination", the aim of the book is to discuss the crucial role of architectural drawings. More information can be found on the website of Taylor & Francis.
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Vera Spinadel, who was also a presenter at Nexus 1998 in Mantua, has recently published two new books. From the Golden Mean to Chaos (3rd edition – Nueva Libreria – June 2010 – ISBN 978-987-1104-83-3) is an updated edition of her book published in 1997.
Forma y Matematica – La familia de numeros metalicos en diseño (Ediciones Fadu – Nobuko – 2011 – ISBN 978-987-584-319-6) contains the main post-graduate monographs to approve the seminar she has delivered every year since 2008 for the master’s program in “logic and technics of form” – Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning – University of Buenos Aires, with the assistnace of professionals from many South American countries (Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, etc.).
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Congratulations to these authors! We'll be looking forward to reading reviews of these books soon in the Nexus Network Journal!
The Nexus conferences for architecture and mathematics are very pleased to congratulate Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, who was a keynote speaker at the Nexus 2010 conference in Porto, for having won the 2011 edition of the Pritzker Prize. One of Architect Souto de Moura's outstanding projects is the Braga Municipal Football stadium, which was toured by Nexus participants. Thanks go to Porto organizer João Pedro Xavier for having invited Souto de Moura to address the conference, making it possible for us to hear him talk about his projects in person.
Information about the 2011 Pritzker laureate, including a splendid photo gallery, can be found on the Pritzker Architecture Prize website.