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One element common in certain types of Islamic architecture is the creation of stalactite-like features inside of semi-domes. These stalactites are prominently featured in the Registan, a complex of three beautiful buildings in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. And while these aren't quite fractals, they do share an interesting feature with fractals, which is worth exploring.
A fractal is basically a shape where a pattern repeats over and over, at increasingly smaller scales. So if you were to "zoom in" on a fractal and examine it more closely, you would see smaller versions of the original shape as you looked more closely.
Looking at the partial dome below, one can see that there are smaller partial domes inside of them. And even within some of the smaller partial domes, there are some even smaller partial domes.
This scaling down of these domes is an element that is similar to what happens in fractals. Though for it to be truly fractal, there would have to be even smaller domes inside, and even smaller domes inside of those, and so on and so on forever.
Because we cannot physically create infinitely small domes (eventually we'd need domes to be smaller than the size of an atom, which is impossible), real fractals in architecture cannot exist. However, if we poke around online, we can find other examples of fractal-like ideas in architecture.
Sample Problems
Sample Problems
1. Look at the examples linked in the previous paragraph and describe how they have elements that are fractal-like.
2. Find other examples of fractals or fractal-like objects in architecture and nature.
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