This article was taken from the May 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
This is pasta like your mamma never used to make -- unless she was mathematician. "The actual mathematics of pasta are very difficult," says George Legendre. "They're thermodynamic, more like fluid mechanics." Legendre is a London-based architect and, in his spare time, a pasta designer.
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In September 2011, he and architectural partner Marco Guarnieri published Pasta by Design, a book which describes 92 types of pasta in mathematical equations, each modelled in 3D using Mathcad. "Once we'd acquired so much knowledge about the process," Legendre says, "we thought it would be a pity not to extend it and create pasta by the very same methods."
The pair began with a traditional approach, looking at making a pasta design with straight edges, inspired by the only rectilinear pasta shape, trenne, and experimented with polygonal and triangular elements. "The weird thing about the world of pasta is that it's like a mirror universe where everything is pliant, groovy and smooth, because of the extrusion process. It's the exact opposite of a built environment."
The final result of their work is a Möbius-like ribbon shape, designed to retain sauce. Called the ioli, it has been named after Legendre's five-year-old daughter -- the architect hopes to find a manufacturer for the pasta by her birthday in December. "We are not pasta makers," he says. "It's difficult to come up with something that has not developed over the last 200 years. It will take a lot more research."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
