Representation of Non-Metric Concepts of Space in Architectural Design Theories

Abstract

The concept of space is one of the most important parts of architectural theory. There are many theories of space in architecture which can be examined from different point of views including mathematics and philosophy. In a mathematical sense, most of the architectural space theories deal with the three-dimensional Euclidean geometry. However, the development of the contemporary architecture has been marked with some other geometric concepts as well. New concepts of space, different from the three-dimensional Euclidean space, have had an impact on architecture since the beginning of the twentieth century. Moreover, in the past two decades growing interest toward a non-metric conception of spaces, where a notion of distance is not relevant, emerged in the theory and design of some contemporary architects. In this paper the relationship between non-metric conception of spaces and architectural design theories are analyzed and evaluated in order to show and the extent to which they are related. © 2014 Kim Williams Books, Turin.