Mobius Strip In Architectural Design

The mysterious Mobius strip

For a long time, Mobius strip is a synonym of mystery for many fantasttic things happened to it. For examle, if you draw lines along the central line of the paper strip, drawing from any point on the central line, you will feel surprized to see that your pen will follow along the paper and never surpass the edge of the paper before it finally reaches to its starting point, besides, the central lines which are opposite of the original paper will leave their marks. What is more, if you take a pair of scissors to cut the paper along the drawn lines, after cutting, what you will get is not two regular paper tape but a bigger strip with a more serious distort, to be precise, distorting twice in particular. If doing like this for a couple times, you will see a bigger strip turn into two small nested strip and each linked with one another.

Of course, if you are with engough curiosity, you can get more interesting things after you turn 360 degree or more, and then paste both ends of the paper tape and cut it along its central line. Of course, all these mysteries are the extension of Mobius strip. The magic of Mobius strip lies in two sides of the original paper tape are made into an integral whole, while architecture scholars expand the sides of the strip to space, streamline and life, creating the mysterious Mobius space. The previous buildings were characterized by a clear boundary between indoor and outdoor space, while Mobius space breaks such a division by combining two space together, which makes a vague boudary and a more unified entity. What is more, architects take advangtage of the element “central line” and makes it a key element of some generated structure shape, and on the basis of which mysteical buildings with dynamic overset curved surface and continuous streamline.

The most representative

Mobius-style residence in its early stage

In the Mobius-style residence live two independent SOHO people , and both of them has a private working space to their own, meanwhile, they solved the problem by using the design of Mobius style. With this concept,in the first and second floor of the both ends of this buliding live man and woman master respectively as their own working and resting room, and there are two ladders at the hall and either end, which is like the transition place in Mobius strip, thus independent living and public hall has been connected.

Three-Dimensional Extention

of Mobius

If we reexamine the generating process of Mobius, we will see that two elements can be changed, one of which is the paper tape that can be replaced by various shape, such as prism; second of which is the change of the number of torsion, if torsioned more than once, then we get different results by cutting . And the Mobius residence was built under the most basic concept by making use of paper tape and with only one torsion. The Mercedes Benz Museum to be introduced and designed by UN Studio is the three-dimentional extention of Mobius.

Inspired by Mobius, architects replaced paper tape with griangular prism, and then torsioned on the basis of three such prisms as basic shape, then paste them where ajacent two meet, most importantly, pasting point should be in three different places, thus indoor space

and shape has been formed as a whole. Because the change was created by prism, huge circle space centers around middle hall with its shape like triangle, and the space of the first and second floor has been occupied alternatively, finally created

six pair of exhibition space where visitors enjoy their visit just like taking trips by cars, the scenery changes as moving ahead smoothly, which brings a lot fun to the visitors. Inside the museum, famous cars just like the rocks in the running stream, they stood out the atmosphere and highlighted value and identity of the prestigious cars. In addition, due to no barriers in the indoor space, with an open vision, the elegance and streaming of Benz has demonstrated fully.

High-end Residence in Jizhou Island , Republic of Korea

—the building is most like Mobius

As the improvement of technology over the years, residence of Mobius series has become mature with Republic of Korea as the best example. The high-end residence is characterized by delicacy, high similarity and elegance. Three concepts such as ceiling, wall and floor are integrated into continuous curved surface of the buliding, like Mobius paper strip. The used space like gallery, living room, bedroom and others was located in the forestry reserve, creating a cozy and natural atmosphere.

In addition to its application in architect, many art products and sculpture once were produced on the basis of Mobius strip, even musicians had integrated it into the composure of their works. If there is another world paralling ours with difference in dimension, then Mobius strip might be the bridge that can connect the world of ours and theirs.