Structure and Form in Design

Michael Hann is Chair of Design Theory at the University of Leeds. He is Director of the University of Leeds International Textiles Archive. He is the author of seven design and textile books and has written extensively for numerous journals including the Journal of the Textile Institute and the Textiles Magazine.

This book is a unique contribution to the theory of structural design in two and three dimensional form, and should be of interest to surface designers, architects, and interior designers.

• Part One: IntroductionPart Two: The Fundamentals and Their Role in DesignIntroduction; Point - a Sound of Silence; Line and What Follows; Planes, Shapes and Forms; Various Polygons; Grids and Guidelines; Use to the Creative Practitioner; SummaryPart Three: Underneath It AllIntroduction; Various Useful Constructions; Static and Dynamic Rectangles; Root Rectangles; The Brunes Star; Compositional Rectangles; Grids from Dynamic Rectangles; SummaryPart Four: Tiling the Plane Without Gap or Overlap Introduction; Regular and Semi-regular Tilings; Demi-regular Tilings; Aperiodic Tilings; Islamic Tilings and Their Construction; Tiling on a Curved Surface; Developing Original Tiling Designs; SummaryPart Five: Symmetry, Patterns and Fractals Introduction; Symmetry Operations; Motifs, Figures or Repeating Units; Friezes, Strips or Borders; Lattices and all-over Patterns; Counter-change Designs; Fractals and Self-similarity - Another Type of Symmetry; Summary Part Six: The Stepping Stones of Fibonacci and the Harmony of a Line DividedIntroduction; The Fibonacci Series; The Golden Section; The Golden Rectangle; The Golden Spiral Uses in Art, Design and Architecture - a Summary of the Debate; The Potential for the Creative Practitioner; Summary Part Seven: Polyhedra, Spheres and DomesIntroduction; Spheres; Platonic Solids; Archimedean Solids; Radiolarians, Soccer Balls and Super Molecules; Polyhedra in Art and Design; Domes; SummaryPart Eight: Structure and Form in Three Dimensions Introduction; Elements of Three-dimensional Form; Representations of Three-dimensional Form; Cubes, Prisms and Cylinders; Cones and Pyramids; Three-dimensional Lattices; Transformations; SummaryPart Nine: Variations on a Theme: Modularity, Closest Packing and PartitioningIntroduction; The Nature of Modularity; Modularity in the Fine and Decorative Arts; Modularity in Design and Architecture; Closest Packing; Efficient Partitioning; Towards a Theory of Emergence in the Decorative Arts and Design; SummaryPart Ten: Structural Analysis in the Decorative Arts, Design and ArchitectureIntroduction; Symmetry Analysis - Steps Towards a Consistent Method; Geometric Analysis in the Decorative Arts, Design and Architecture; Frequently Used Constructions and Measures; Questions Relating to Method and Data Collection; Steps Towards a Systematic Analytical Framework; Questions of Accuracy; Summary Part Eleven: A Designer's FrameworkAppendicesReferences