Nexus: Architecture and Mathematics is the record of presentations given during the first Nexus conference, "Nexus '96: Relationships Between Architecture and Mathematics," Fucecchio (Florence) 9-12 June 1996. The question that engineer Mario Salvadori explores in his address to the conference is a pertinent one: Can there be any relationships between architecture and mathematics? The papers in this volume demonstrate amply that there can. What mathematical ideas are present in architecture? Presented are geometrical forms and constructions, proportions, modular systems, minimum surfaces, number theory and symbolism, dimensional manipulation, fractals, and symmetry. How does architecture inspire mathematical thinking? Nexus: Architecture and Mathematics illustrates the relationships between pentadecagonal symmetry and Pisan mathematics of the 13th century; between the tensile structures of Frei Otto and ways to measure minimum surfaces; between the geodesic domes of Buckminister Fuller and the inherent stability of Archimedean solids. It appears then that rigorous mathematical processes and empirical architectural processes are not antithetical, but complementary. Each discipline is enriched by the discoveries of the other.

Benno Artmann. "The Cloisters of Hauterive."

Paul Calter. "Facade Measurement by Trigonometry."

John Clagett. "Transformational Geometry and the Central European Baroque Church."

Michele Emmer. "Architecture and Mathematics: Soap Bubbles and Soap Films."

Heinz Goetze. "Friedrich II and the Love of Geometry."

Istvan Hargittai and Magdolna Hargittai. "The Universality of the Symmetry Concept."

George Gherveghese Joseph. "Geometry of Vedic Altars."

Jay Kappraff. "Musical Proportions at the Basis of Systems of Architectural Proportion"

David Speiser. "The Symmetries of the Baptistery and the Leaning Tower of Pisa."

Livio Volpi Ghirardini. "The Numberable Architecture of Leon Battista Alberti."

Carol Martin Watts. "The Square and the Roman House: Pompeii and Herculaneum."

Donald J. Watts. " Roman Geometrical Ordering in the Design of a New American Prairie House."

Kim Williams. "Verrocchio's Tombslab for Cosimo de'Medici."

Leonard K. Eaton wrote in his review of Nexus: Architecture and Mathematics for the NNJ:

"In 1996 there gathered a number of individuals, architects, mathematicians and others, to study the conjunction (or nexus) of their disciplines. Interest in the relationship of architecture and mathematics began many centuries ago, and most of the essays printed here are historical in nature. The variety of mathematics with which they deal is quite astonishing: geometrical forms and constructions, proportions, modular systems, minimum surfaces, number theory and symbolism, dimensional manipulation, fractals, and symmetry. It is clear that there has been much fruitful interaction between the disciplines. Kim Williams, the editor, has performed a real service by bringing these essays together."