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22/05_Seeking for patterns


            Geometry is an extensive field with many applications in real life. To introduce this topic we think that it could be a good idea to make a small project with the students. We can ask them to take pictures of geometrics figures or patterns in the façades of the buildings. Then, they can describe the elements with the knowledge they already have. I have done my own quest, and here are the results:


Illustration 1. Pasaje Cuartel de Caballería

What can we say about this first composition? First of all, it is plane figure. Then it is formed by three parallel squares. Each square has 4 semi circles, opposite to each other, creating like a kind of flowers. If we duplicate again and again this composition, we would have a tessellation because (1) all squares form a tessellation because there are not any gaps and (2) there are not geometric figures overlapped. 


Illustration 2. Tara building, S/ Tara (Dublin). Autor: Esteban Zamora. 

This composition could have been a mosaic. It is made of diagonal strips that converge, then, the artist created rhombus painted in different colours. I say it could have been a mosaic because mainly the figures created are rhombus, but then intentionally, the artist has broken the symmetry in the frames of the two sides of the front building. 


Illustration 3. Building in Av/ Moliere (Málaga) [Self-made].

This seems harmonious work seems to be the small windows of the bathrooms or the corridors of the building. It can perfectly create a mosaic, made of a equilateral triangle that is cut in three small triangles… it is simple but effective and it is amazing how we can create beautiful compositions with just one single geometric figure.



Illustration 4. Detail of a house (Dublin) [Self-made].

In the front of the building of this house, we can see different geometric elements. In the doors there are semi-circles, rectangles and figures that aren’t exactly rectangles or semi-circles, but figures that have those elements. There is also, in the traffic sign, a circle, etc.

 
Illustration 5. Detail of one of the many churches in Dublin. Autor: Esteban Zamora. 


This an arch of the many types of arches that exist in the history of the architecture. This case is a pointed arch, typical from baroque architecture among others.
With small project we want our students to appreciate the implications that geometry have in our lives and analyse their features. It can be done, for example, through jigsaw¸ a technique of cooperative learning. With this technique, groups of students investigate about a topic, becoming experts on it. Then, the different groups of pieces of the puzzle, divide themselves and go around the other groups explaining what they have learnt, so that everybody learn about every topic, but you are only an expert on one of the topics.
Maybe from now on, they would be observing the world with other glasses, analysing with more knowledge the reality, or we would be creating future architects or art historians… Stay tuned for next posts! 

References
Aronson, E. (n.d.). The Jigsaw Classroom In Jigsaw. Retrieved from https://www.jigsaw.org/

Teselaciones y mosaicos. (n.d.). En Agrega.educación. Retrieved from http://agrega.educacion.es/repositorio/29052014/17/es_2014052912_9090549/teselaciones_y_mosaicos.html
  
Tipos de arcos en arquitectura. (n.d.) En Arkiplus. Retrieved from https://www.arkiplus.com/tipos-de-arcos-en-arquitectura/
 


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