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An Urban Hosptal in Istanbul

Part 1 Project 2007
Andrew Witt
Harvard Design School | USA
This thesis proposes a new hospital in Istanbul through an investigation of the geometry of growth and deformation. The hospital’s constrained cellular organization, perpetual expansion, and intimate urban relationship pose compelling geometric problems. At the core of the research is a set of rigorous mathematical constructions made architectural through differential calculus and projective geometry. This research deploys contemporary mathematical constructions, knowledge-based engineering, automation, and parametric software technology across scales, from the city to the envelope. The ambition of the thesis is both to propose a specific project and to codify a rigorous body of geometric research for designers.


This project represents a strikingly innovative approach to the relationship between urban and institutional forms of organization by
deploying a geometry of growth and change. In so doing, it establishes a highly productive reflection on the relationship of mathematics to
Architecture. In short, the project represents a substantial body of independent research in its own right, encompassing a range of topics that exceeds the typical scope of lessons to be learned from a design project. The research is didactic in the best sense, and constitutes the most rigorous, intelligent, and provocative thesis I have seen in recent
memory.

2007
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