Escher Patterns in the Classroom

Here is one of the exercises I tested with a few students in Architectural Geometry. The exercise is about creating Escher-like patterns. It is an introductory topic on the designerly utilization of regular tessellations. We use square, hexagonal, or triangular tessellations as underlying structures of complex patterns. Below are some of the student works from this exercise. I think the black-and-white coloring helps in terms of reducing the requirements. Although the patterns designed in this exercise are not Escher patterns, it seems that the results resemble them a lot. This is because of the fact that the underlying regular tessellations are the reason for this resemblance. However, the real function of these patterns lies in the fact that the resulting pattern has multiple visual outcomes. We generally use the figure and background interchangeably to display meaningful shapes. Escher also studied pattern deformations by changing the underlying tessellation.

Berfin Sanem Top

Beste Tekdoğan

Kerem Yücel

Utkan Kanberoğlu

Here are some of the quotes attributed to the M.C. Escher:

“Only those who attempt the absurd…will achieve the impossible. I think …I think it’s in my basement…Let me go upstairs and check.”

“Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?”

“I don’t use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.”

“We adore chaos because we love to produce order.”

“What I give form to in daylight is only one percent of what I have seen in darkness.”

“He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonderful.”

“So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars; amen.”