Overview   Tree   Index 
NPR Literature
PREV  NEXT FRAMES  NO FRAME 

[LS+07]  Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture

Lu:2007:DQC (Article)
Author(s)Lu P. and Steinhardt P.
Title« Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture »
JournalScience
Volume315
Number5815
Page(s)1106--1110
Year2007

Abstract
The conventional view holds that girih (geometric star-and-polygon, or strapwork) patterns in medieval Islamic architecture were conceived by their designers as a network of zigzagging lines, where the lines were drafted directly with a straightedge and a compass. We show that by 1200 C.E. a conceptual breakthrough occurred in which girih patterns were reconceived as tessellations of a special set of equilateral polygons (``girih tiles'') decorated with lines. These tiles enabled the creation of increasingly complex periodic girih patterns, and by the 15th century, the tessellation approach was combined with self-similar transformations to construct nearly perfect quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns, five centuries before their discovery in the West.

BibTeX code
@article{Lu:2007:DQC,
  optpostscript = {},
  number = {5815},
  month = feb,
  author = {Peter J. Lu and Paul J. Steinhardt},
  optkey = {},
  optannote = {},
  localfile = {papers/Lu.2007.DQC.pdf},
  optkeywords = {},
  doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1135491},
  optciteseer = {},
  journal = {Science},
  opturl = {},
  volume = {315},
  optwww = {},
  title = {{D}ecagonal and {Q}uasi-{C}rystalline {T}ilings in {M}edieval
           {I}slamic {A}rchitecture},
  abstract = {The conventional view holds that girih (geometric
              star-and-polygon, or strapwork) patterns in medieval Islamic
              architecture were conceived by their designers as a network of
              zigzagging lines, where the lines were drafted directly with a
              straightedge and a compass. We show that by 1200 C.E. a conceptual
              breakthrough occurred in which girih patterns were reconceived as
              tessellations of a special set of equilateral polygons (``girih
              tiles'') decorated with lines. These tiles enabled the creation of
              increasingly complex periodic girih patterns, and by the 15th
              century, the tessellation approach was combined with self-similar
              transformations to construct nearly perfect quasi-crystalline
              Penrose patterns, five centuries before their discovery in the
              West.},
  pages = {1106--1110},
  year = {2007},
}

 Overview   Tree   Index 
NPR Literature
PREV  NEXT FRAMES  NO FRAME 

Submit a bug

This document was generated by bib2html 3.3.
Copyright © 1998-05 Stéphane GALLAND (under the GNU General Public License)

Valid HTML 4.01!Valid CSS!