Shaping Space

This second edition is based off of the very popular Shaping Space: A Polyhedral Approach, first published twenty years ago. The book is expanded and updated to include new developments, including the revolutions in visualization and model-making that the computer has wrought.

Shaping Space is an exuberant, richly-illustrated, interdisciplinary guide to three-dimensional forms, focusing on the suprisingly diverse world of polyhedra. Geometry comes alive in Shaping Space, as a remarkable range of geometric ideas is explored and its centrality in our cultre is persuasively demonstrated. The book is addressed to designers, artists, architects, engineers, chemists, computer scientists, mathematicians, bioscientists, crystallographers, earth scientists, and teachers at all levels--in short, to all scholars and educators interested in, and working with, two- and three-dimensinal structures and patterns.

Here is an exuberant survey of polyhedra that also offers a hands-on introduction to one of the oldest and most fascinating branches of mathematics. It presents a treasury of ideas, history, and culture that detail the beauty of polyhedra.

From the reviews:

"It consists of a collection of essays by different authors about many different aspects related to polyhedra. ... The book is amply illustrated and aiming at a public from 9 till 99. It will be of interest to a very broad public. Form a mathematical side children might be interested in geometrical puzzles and advanced mathematicians may be interested in solving the open problems, and the whole range in between will probably find something interesting of their own taste." (A. Bultheel, The European Mathematical Society, June, 2013)