Abstract

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Symmetry: Culture and Science
Volume 36, Number 4, pages 375-395 (2025)
https://doi.org/10.26830/symmetry_2025_4_375

EXPLICIT GEOMETRY: INTEGRATING MUSIC AND MATHEMATICS IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

Aleix Alva

Department of Architectural Technology, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, ETSAB, Av. Diagonal 649, 08028, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Email: aleix.alva@upc.edu
ORCID: 0000-0001-7966-371X

Abstract: Musical harmony, understood both as consonance of rational quantities and as their temporal progression through loss and restoration of rationality, can inform architectural design. This study proposes the tangible presence of synthetic-geometry constructions as a key to perceiving harmonic proportions. A detailed project based on a seventh-chord - ii-V-I – jazz progression explores the architectural interpretation of just intonation, voice leading, non-commutativity, and temperament.

Keywords: proportion, geometry, mathematics, architecture, music, harmony, Euclid, just intonation, non-commutativity, temperament.

MSC 2020: 00A65, 00A66, 00A67, 51-03.

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