Monge Surfaces. Generation, discretisation and application in Architecture

Abstract

This paper describes a revision of so-called Monge surfaces through using digital graphic tools, based on the synthetic conception exposed by Gaspard Monge in the 18th and 19th centuries, through their geometric relation with polar surface. As a starting point, we propose a graphical system that integrally solves the generation of these kind of surfaces, their rationalization and discretization, with the objective of their specific application in architecture. The geometric system described allows the generation of a type of surface in which the pair of curves -generatrix and directrix- give rise to the network of principal lines of curvature (LCP) of the final surface. In this way, we propose a process that follows a bottom-up generative system based on Monge surfaces, which offers wide possibilities of formal exploration, while imposing geometrical-constructive properties that are very useful in fabrication and assembly processes.