Freeing Up Architecture: Part 2

Many of today.s most striking buildings are nontraditional freeform shapes. A new
field of mathematics, discrete differential geometry, makes it possible to construct
these complex shapes that begin as designers. digital creations. Since it.s impossible
to fashion a large structure out of a single piece of glass or metal, the design
is realized using smaller pieces that best fit the original smooth surface. Triangles
would appear to be a natural choice to represent a shape, but it turns out that
using quadrilaterals.which would seem to be more difficult.saves material and
money and makes the structure easier to build.