A wide range of geometric principles, concepts and perspectives, invariably sourced in ancient times, offer potential as problem solving tools in the twenty-first century. This appears to be accepted by design teachers and instructors worldwide, but evidence for the wide-spread inclusion and systematic delivery of such material in the design curriculum of the first decade of the twenty-first century is largely lacking.

This is surprising, since many of the great breakthroughs in design, and especially architecture, were conditional upon individuals who not only understood materials and processes but also had an intimate knowledge of the geometry of structure and form. Notable examples include William Morris, Louis Foreman Day, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Richard Buckminster Fuller.

There seems therefore to be a barrier preventing this potentially beneficial development. The authors believe that this barrier is the perceived lack of a clearly understandable and accessible collection of literature of importance to the development of relevant teaching material. This is the problem being addressed by this paper.