Why are Most Buildings Rectangular? : And Other Essays on Geometry and Architecture (Hardcover)

Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I: Plan geometry, rectangular and circular 1. Why are most buildings rectangular?2. Architectural doughnuts: circular plan buildings, with and without courtyards Part II: The history and ‘evolution’ of building types 3. The contradictions of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon penitentiary 4. Samuel Bentham’s Panopticon5.The changing department store building, 1850 to 1940 6.Evolution of a building type: the case of the multi-storey garage Part III: Built form and urban form: geometry, energy and density7.(with Stephen Evans and Michael Batty) Wall area, volume and plan depth in the building stock 8.(with Ian Hamilton and Stephen Evans) Energy and urban built form: an empirical and statistical approach 9.Density and built form: integrating ‘Spacemate’ with the work of Martin and March Part IV: Theoretical approaches to possibility in built form 10.(Frank Brown with Philip Steadman) The analysis and interpretation of small house plans: some contemporary examples 11.Generative design methods, and the exploration of worlds of formal possibility 12. (with Linda Mitchell) Architectural morphospace: mapping worlds of built forms; Index