This paper tends to reveal the close relations that exist between the crystallography and architecture. The evidence of this relation between the art and the science is the best communication manner during the education process with students. On the other hand, recognizing the interdisciplinary relations helps them for a better orientation in the framework of job market.
About the birth of art, we know no more than about the birth of language. If with art we understand construction processes of temples, houses and creation of pictures and sculptures, then there is not any people without art. The museums or exhibitions contain a lot of beautiful objects which are art productions that come from recent time, but many of the great builders or sculptors from the ancient times didn’t ever think of it. We understand better this distinction when we stop in architecture. It is very difficult to find a building that isn’t raised for a certain purpose because the architectural form of the object has always been a function of the purpose to which it would be used.
The most essential relation between crystallography and architecture stands in the processes involved in both, up to respective productions. Making crystallography and making architecture means shaping the space. In the first case the space is shaped from the surface of the crystal, while in the second, it is shaped from the surface of a building. A mineral exists due to some determined equilibrium points of power and energy, as it is necessary for the building to exist.
In crystallography the above laws and balances are determined by the “nature”- architect, whereas in architecture they are determined by the man-architect. In fact, the man-architect just only models the nature.
The use of the same words in the respective terminologies of the two sciences, such as: “crystallographic form”- “the building form”, “the architecture of the crystal”-“urbanistic architecture”, “crystalline structure”-“architectural structure”, “habitus” (crystallography)-“habitat” (architecture) “crystallographic projection”-“architectural projection”, etc, confirms the close relation that exists between them.
Both the crystallographic and architectural forms are based on the principles of symmetry. The law of the small, full numbers in crystallography and the law of perspective in architecture are essentially the same.
The buildings have often forms that are similar or identical with simple or combined crystallographic forms, such as cub, tetragonal pyramid, tetragonal or hexagonal prism, etc. Everybody knows that Egypt is the country of the pyramids. In addition, the expansion of a construction room by room can be compared with the growth of the crystalline frame. Finally, the increasing abundance of the buildings especially in the metropolis resembles to the closed package in the crystallography.