CALVINO’S INVISIBLE CITIES: MATHEMATICAL STRUCTURES IN CYBERSPACE

Penrose writes that when man is unable to explain reality, he invents a new mathematics that allows specific verifications, developing assumptions capable of modelling the phenomenon with the available tools: first euclidean geometry, then numerical calculus with algebra and analysis, projective transformations to represent space, non-euclidean geometries and again the fractal algorithmic, up to space-time and the mathematical structures of quantum mechanics and the logic of cybernetics. Each new mathematics has created successful models of the cosmos with the knowledge of the time. Architecture has always been inspired by mathematics, designing the artificial microcosm as a scaled-down model of the real one; it started from euclidean geometry but did not stop there. Other arts apply mathematical concepts, linking its principles to humanistic culture through structures that relate closely to architecture, such as the logical-mathematical structure of natural language, which is the word. Calvino's work, The Invisible Cities (1972), an imaginative tale of international renown, is meaningful. Due to its surreal and imaginary depiction of the city, the text is a classic reference in architecture education and there are several explicit references in contemporary architectural inspiration and criticism (Zevi, Rossi, Ragon, Lynch...).