DOI: 10.5176/2301-394X_ACE17.86
Authors: Botond Bognar
Abstract:
The paper discusses the course and latest achievement of the Japanese architect Toyo Ito’s efforts in developing a new type of architectural space that challenges the Western mode of design rooted in Euclidean as well as Cartesian orthogonal geometry. Such new mode of design, derived from Ito’s theory of ‘emerging grid,’ has been realized most successfully in his recently completed National Taichung Theater in Taiwan. Here he has been able to create a fully three-dimensional and continuously curving structural system as a tubular, horizontally and vertically interconnected, fluid spatial matrix (catenoids), enabled by the application of the most advanced nonlinear digital computational methods. The paper introduces the design and construction processes of the project and analyzes the resulting free-form building as the prospect for a new architectural paradigm.
Keywords: National Taichung Theater; architecture; design and construction of a catenoid structure; Toyo Ito.
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