Teaching mathematics in architecture

The Department of Architecture of Middle East Technical University offers a course entitled ‘Mathematics in Architecture’ for the third year students. In the beginning of the term, students are forced to imagine themselves as twodimensional creatures living in a two-dimensional space. At this point, fundamentals of architectural geometry are introduced first in the plane, simply by employing the set concept; mapping as a general tool is then introduced and students are asked to use mapping in their design to correlate the project requirements and geometry. Following that, the principles of isometries and isometric constructions are introduced. In the second part of the term, students are allowed to think in terms of three-dimensional space and topics related with the principles of similarities and proportions and symmetry are presented. In the final part of the course, students are forced to think themselves as three-dimensional creatures living in a four-dimensional space and this fourth dimension is sought. The last topic of the course is related with biomimicry in architecture and mathematics inherent in bioforms and man-made structure