Historical Notes: Developable Surfaces in Modern Architecture - a Monument to Monge

摘要

During their travels many a mathematician will go searching for a monument even vaguely linked to famous mathematicians or mathematical inventions. Perhaps more vaguely than most, my summer holiday included a visit to Frank O. Gehry's (born 1929) remark-able Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (completed in 1997), which I consider to be one of the greatest monuments dedicated to developable surfaces (see Figure 1).