the curvilinear forms of the Infinity Chapel by hanrahan Meyers architects are based on a hypercube concept click here to view more photos Infinity Chapel on hanrahanMeyers.com

hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) Infinity Chapel is an exploration of a square deforming into an infinity sign;  and a cube deforming into a hypercube.  The square and the cube historically represented a static approach to design. Infinity signs, moebius strips, klein bottles and hypercubes represent an active interpretation of classic shapes and space.  Infinity Chapel is a project that uses these dynamic mathematical forms – deforming through the action of light – to create a unique, sacred space.

Contemporary architects have taken an interest in forms that defy logic by creating bounded, but infinite spaces.  These interests take the form of klein bottles and moebius strips.  Many of the cutting-edge architectural investigations in recent years have incorporated these bounded but infinite forms.

The influence of mathematics in architecture has varied over time, but its influence can be found in Greek temples laid out as demonstrations of the golden section rectangle.  In medieval Europe, cathedrals were laid out by stonemasons using 'sacred numbers', generating forms according to principals handed down within free-mason families. 

Guarino Guarini, a 17th century mathematician, designed baroque cathedrals using ideas from contemporary mathematics.  His use of the calculus to create baroque forms within cathedral oculi earned Guarini, an Italian monk, a greater place in history than his treatises on descriptive geometry. 

 Guarino Guarini's Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin

The current trend in architecture has been toward sculptural and dynamic forms, similar to the Baroque period.  Contemporary architects including Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid have designed buildings with highly dynamic forms to invoke movement and drama.  Working in that tradition, hMa's Infinity Chapel employs dramatic mathematically based forms and light to embody contemporary ideas from science and mathematics.  

hMa references mathematical forms in their works, using classic formal shapes:  circles, lines, and squares (Light Score;  Holley House;  Inside-Out House);  as well as dynamic forms:  moebius strips, klien bottles, hypercubes and hyperspheres (Infinity Chapel;  Ojai Festival Shell;  WaveLine)  - to construct their projects.  Every hMa project depicts a projection in the physical world of a set of theoretical concepts.  By giving clients physical access to these forms in physical spaces that they occupy on a daily basis, hMa's projects become physical bridges to a cerebral interpretation of Nature and the universe beyond. 

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