Digital girih, a digital interpretation of islamic architecture

The relation between texture, pattern and massing is a fundamental question in architecture. Classical architecture, as Leon Battista Alberti states in De Re Aedificatoria, Book VI, Chapter 2, is developed through massing and structure first; texture is added afterwards to give the bold massing and structure beauty [I]. This hierarchy has of course been challenged throughout architecture history. This paper will provide a different thinking of the relationship of massing and texture in Islamic Architecture from a digital point of view. An analysis of Islamic patterns challenged this relationship in Islamic architecture. Digital design and fabrication methods for a series of studies and an installation were used to respond to the findings of the analysis.