The grammar of crystallographic expression

Abstract

This paper stems from a research collaboration which brings together two disciplines at different ends of the scale spectrum: crystallography and architecture. The science of crystallography demonstrates that the propertes of crystalline materials are a function of atomic/molecular interactions and arrangements at the atomic level - i.e., functions of the form and structure of the material. Some of these nano-geometries are frameworks with special characteristcs, such as uni-directional porosity, mult-directional porosity, and varied combinations of flexibility and strength. This paper posits that the symmetry operations implicit in these materials can be regarded as a spatal grammar in the design of objects, spaces, and environments. The aim is to allow designers and architects to access the wealth of structural information that is now accumulated in crystallographic databases as well as the spatal symmetry logics utlized in crystallography to describe molecular arrangements. To enable this process, a bespoke software application has been developed as a tool-path to allow for interoperability between crystallographic datasets and CAD-based modelling systems. The application embeds the descriptive logic and generative principles of crystallographic symmetry. Using this software, the project, inter alia, produces results related to a class of geometrical surfaces called Triply Periodic Minimal (TPM) surfaces. In addition to digital iterations, a physical prototype of one such surface called the gyroid was constructed to test potental applications in design. The paper describes the development of these results and the conclusions derived from the first stage of user testing.