> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Siobhan Roberts > Reference:: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/science/math-weaving-bamboo.html > Date:: 2019-07-29 > Tags:: #Brazil > WeftLinks:: [[Social value of craft]], [[Creative value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Makers are creative]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > The two-mile “Minhocão" elevated freeway in Sao Paulo was deactivated to enable local communities to better connect with each other. A simple technique of weaving bamboo was developed by weaver Alison Grace Martin to maximise engagement while building models for what would replace the freeway. Mr Solly, director of Format Engineers in England, said of Martin: > “I could spend ages trying to work out on a computer what she does quickly in a tactile fashion.” ![[Pasted image 20221223120125.png]] Martin had discovered that working with bamboo fostered complex spatial design. > For instance, a basket maker might start with a woven tessellation of hexagons. Swapping out one hexagon for a polygon with fewer sides — a pentagon, say — introduces a singularity and generates positive curvature, like the outer curve of a doughnut. Swapping in a polygon with more sides, such as an octagon, generates negative curvature, like a doughnut’s interior. The trick is intuiting, based on the desired structure, where in the weave to place this singularity, and what type of singularity it should be.