mandelbrot set

Benoit Mandelbrot has died

Mathieu Helie — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:47:17 +0000

Reported by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and other sources, Benoit Mandelbrot, the founder of the mathematical school of fractal geometry, has died at the age of 85.

In his honor, you should watch his last (that I know of) public appearance at TED Talks 2010.

The Fundamentals of Urban Complexity

Mathieu Helie — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:00:11 +0000

This is part II in an ongoing series of excerpts of an article set to be published this summer in The International Journal of Architectural Research, tentatively titled The Principles of Emergent Urbanism. Click here for part I, The Journey to Emergence.

Fake Complexity - CCTV Headquarters

Mathieu Helie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:06:56 +0000

From time to time I happen upon an attempt to "do" complexity that completely misses the point. In this first installment of many "Fake Complexity" topics, the culprit is Rem Koolhaas and his CCTV Headquarters for Beijing.

Complex geometry and structured chaos

Mathieu Helie — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:08:42 +0000

Fractal geometry has infiltrated popular culture since it was formalized in the early 80's from the works of Benoit Mandelbrot. While it has been used to study the form of cities by researchers such as Pierre Frankhauser and Michael Batty, the insights to be drawn from this field of mathematics have not yet penetrated the field of urbanism, defined as the construction of cities.