Formal Studies on the Parts and Wholes of Historical Bricklay Designs: Fid-Bau Portal

Formal Studies on the Parts and Wholes of Historical Bricklay Designs

Altun, Sevgi / Özkar, Mine

This paper examines the computational relation between the pattern designs and the construction of historical brick wall panels. The general aim is to devise a method to integrate the geometric and constructional aspects of architectural knowledge in the digital modeling of heritage as part of the increasing interest and need for putting technology to use in practices of conservation and cultural sustainability. Parametric shape rules are computation tools and means for exposing and understanding the three-dimensional relations between the parts of an architectural structure as well as its generative system. We have been analyzing a particular series of brick panels from the Anatolian Seljuk period. In this genre, panels are composed of both plain and glazed bricks of different colors and shapes, materializing abstract geometric patterns in the way that they are placed vertically and horizontally. The plural ways in which different parts and wholes can be perceived on one panel are due to not only the constructional relations between individual bricks but also the geometric motifs formed by the groups of bricks. In this study, we expand the breadth and variety of the examples for more in-depth analysis. Existing architecture and construction history literature on the brick structures of the period provide inferences on the types of brick bonds, sizes, shapes, and surface finishing. Studying photographs, photogrammetry-based models, and survey drawings, we identify the parameters of this type of bricklaying based on these inferences and define the smallest number of shape rules either as pattern rules or brick rules, required for recreating the panels. Local deformations and minor divergences observable in the data are disregarded. The sequential application of sets of pattern rules and brick rules simulates the reconstruction of existing and novel panels in the said genre. We have tested and validated the syntactic accuracy of our grammar through an existing shape interpreter. We have also assessed the results of our generative system comparatively with the brick patterns of different panels of the said period and geography. Differently from the existing grammars that make visual styles explicit, the parametric definition and the sequencing of rules in our study facilitate the categorical documentation of the similarities and differences of patterns as part of a physical construction process. The proposed means to document existing structures and their design and construction, in pattern and brick rules, respectively, serves purposes of conservation and restoration and, in turn, the integration of cultural-historical knowledge with contemporary tools provides ground for designers to explore these issues today. Currently limited to flat surfaces, the parameters and rule sets can be expanded in future studies to similar designs observed on surfaces with various curvatures, making an even stronger connection to complex geometries.