Art
and
Architecture
NOTES ON THE SPIRAL-THEME IN RECENT ARCHITECTURE
(Illustrations: Tat/in-Tower, Universal, Spiral Store, Musee Mondial, Modern
Gallery of lhe Museum of Non-Objective Art. )
FREDERICK J. KIESLER
T
HE CREATIVE mind finding its sources in the certitudes of memory
rediscovers the spiral.
Bernouilli, 1690, saw, investigated and mathematized for the first
time truthfully the law of spiral-structure and gave one the name of
"logarithmic."
"The length of radii vectores making equal angles with one another
are in geometric progression."
This discovery, namely tha t of "perpetual renascence" delighted
Bernouilli to such a degree that he requested the image of the spiral to
be engraved on his tombstone. The inscription reads:
Eadem mutato
resurgo.
That indeed seems to be the secret of the spiral's irresistible hyp–
notism: continuous rebirth on new planes without losing contact with
former ones. An expansion of steps without halt. Continuous motion
from within its own force. Power of birth and re-birth.
Archimedes using the spiral as a wand to square the circle, 225 B.C.
Fermat discovering his own version 1636.
Lituus-spiral by Cotes 1722
Cochleoid (snail) spiral formulated in 1700 and used as a quadratix
of a circle.
Nature is manifold in expressions of spiral growth; observe the
forming of spiral nebulae clusters prior to the creation of globular nuclei;
witness the tendrils of the vine-leaf, the conic screw-winding of the seed-
Logarithmic
Archimedes
Fermat
Lituus
