Year: 2015
Type: graphic design
Status: Completed
Featured on: Mecanoo, Designboom, Boston Society of Architecture, World Architecture, A as Architecture, We and the Color, Arkitera
A pattern is a graphic scheme characterised by a repetitive structure in which the regularity of the relationships between the individual objects is perceived as a whole. It is easy to find patterns in nature, some are clear as the fur of cats, others are more intricate like the fractal geometry of plants. In art, as in architecture, the pattern becomes a means to communicate, create balance, and generate aesthetic pleasure.
According to Gombrich’s studies, the visual pleasure of a pattern generally lies in an intermediate position between the extremes of chaos and redundancy. Information theory defines redundancy as the constant repetition of a series of messages that are always the same or perfectly predictable, chaos as a sequence of unpredictable messages.
Architects use patterns to define environments, create order, and convey information. One of the firms that I think does this best is Mecanoo, a Dutch firm founded in Delft in 1984. I love how their projects convey emotion, develop place identity and create social connections. For these reasons, I decided to delve into the use of patterns in Mecanoo’s architecture through a process of visual thinking. The result is this collection of nine posters, available free of charge to anyone who wishes to print and use them privately.
