What might a contemporary theory of architectural decoration be?
PATTERN
Frequently under-theorised, pattern is a surprisingly mobile intellectual concept, whether used by sociologists, anthropologists and urbanists to grasp complex cultural forms, or by mathematicians, physicists and cyberneticians to analyse configurations of matter, energy and information, or by cognitive theorists and psychologists to reveal the organisation of the human mind.
Our research into the use pattern in architecture, developed through our teaching and practice, addresses issues as varied as environmental performance, figuration and abstraction, ornamentation and decoration. Often this work is examined as a way of directly engaging the senses. Frequently, these studies have explored new production possibilities opened by CADCAM technologies. Working with pattern is proving to be a key strategy in our thinking around ecology, cybernetics and socio-spatial morphology.
