ARCHITECTURE AND CURVATURE: IT’S COMPLICATED…
Arielle Blonder (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, IL)

Curved space has long shaped human experience, accompanying habitation since its earliest forms, from caves and earthen shelters to domes and vaulted halls. Yet Western architecture gradually adopted an orthogonal logic, reinforced by Cartesian geometry and culminating in the planar aesthetics of modernism. In recent decades, curvilinear thinking has returned to architectural discourse, influenced by philosophy, digital design, and new structural and expressive ambitions. Curved surfaces can offer significant advantages, including structural efficiency, climatic performance, and rich spatial experience, but their fabrication remains complex and resource-intensive. This lecture explores emerging alternatives inspired by natural morphogenesis, where shape arises from internal material organization rather than external formwork or moulds. Focusing on recent research in self-shaping materials and Frustrated Composites, the talk presents how programmed internal stresses can generate complex curved surfaces autonomously, suggesting new pathways for architecture where geometry emerges, rather than being imposed.

Arielle Blonder is an architect, combining academic activity with architectural practice ranging from architectural design and unique outdoor spaces to sensorial environments for people with special needs, exhibitions, textile design and more. Her research is centred on composite materials and fabric materiality, searching for novel processes for architectural applications of fiberglass (FRP).

In English

Termin in meinen Kalender aufnehmen

Idee & Organisation:
Simon Blatt, InterMediation / Fachbereich Mathematik, Universität Salzburg
Katarzyna Grebosz-Haring, InterMediation / Interuniversitäre Einrichtung Wissenschaft & Kunst, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg

Eine Veranstaltung von PB InterMediation. Musik – Wirkung – Analyse in Kooperation mit dem Fachbereich Mathematik der Universität Salzburg in der Vortragsreihe Musik, die Künste & Mathematik.

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