(The original title for this post started as “Here is our latest Fitted Bookcase”, by the end of the post I thought I had to change this to suit what is has turned into!)

This Bookcase I love, the proportions are great, I love the doors on the bottom with the top routed handles . The lights inside and on top of the unit really make the bookcase come alive. The “random” squares where the inside lights are have been placed in a way that looks balanced to the eye. I studied photography and have composition in my blood, I can easily place any amount of squares or rectangles or even different sized shapes on a space and make them look random yet still make the unit look perfectly balanced, I love doing these random squares, they are great for breaking up the lines of the shelving and for highlighting certain objects within the unit in the midst of all the books or whatever else you want to display on there.

The larger central square is supported by the smaller ones around it like a planet and it’s satellites (both natural and spaceship ones), or a town with it’s castle in the middle and smaller watch towers scattered amongst the town buildings. I find it fascinating how patterns in nature all around us, inside us and far out into space have such an influence and correlation with everything we do on this earth, from what we create to how we think and speak, from the streams and rivers, tree trunks and leaves, motorways, “A” roads and “B” roads, to patterns in our behaviour both natural and learned such as good and bad behaviour.

Patterns are all around us and I spend time analysing them, I find it is a very useful thing to do as if you find a pattern somewhere it helps you understand something else which is totally unrelated on first impression, or something that you don’t know anything about, but because you understand a certain pattern (or many patterns) you are better able to understand that thing that you had no idea about at first, they help make sense of the world.

Amongst many other things, I use the Amazon rainforest to help me understand many things because it is a very old and mature place where natural patterns have been able to establish. I take the patterns of the Amazon and superimpose them on anything from psychological reasons of how best to behave to understanding if something I am doing is the right thing to do, to give you an example, the amazon has the most amazing variety, nothing int here is allowed to take over, and that lets me understand that this pattern can be applied to business for example I understand from this pattern that monopolies are not a good thing as they reduce choice and push prices up amongst many other factors. So to sum that pattern up, as we all know excess is never a good thing, if you eat just one thing you wont be healthy, if you never exercise you wont be healthy, if all you do is work and don’t spend time with family and friends you wont be healthy, these are all very simple and easy to understand things, but I am using them because they are simple examples of how patterns relate, you can use them in much deeper more complex ways of course.

Patterns both look beautiful to look at when you can, and patterns are useful for humans to make sense of the world, as humans most of us like to see patterns, we like to make sense of things, we feel comforted by patterns, a lot of our customers feel comforted that what they are doing is what someone else has already done, they ask me “is this what people would normally do?” or “what thickness would other people normally have?” or ” what height would you normally do?” or “what is the standard” a standard is a reoccurring pattern.

When people ask me what is standard I say “sorry I am not used to working with standards”, we can make up our own standards and we will make it beautiful. Standards are born for various reasons, not always good, the good ones are important to keep, but some would be silly, one thing that comes to mind is when I visit my dad’s house in Belgium, he has a centuries old house with walls around 60cm thick made with flint (the local stone where I grew up in Belgium), and every time I have to walk from one room to another I have to bend my head down. That was a standard of the day when people where on average much smaller than today, I am pleased that I am not the living in that era or I think I would have no teeth left by now from banging my face in the tops of door frames (ouch).

Below you can see the beautiful re-occurring patterns of the cauliflower, each peak is made of lot lots of little exact same but scaled down versions of these peaks which in turn are made of more peaks which in turn are made up of more peaks and I believe that this goes either into infinity in some way or a very very long way, some of us who believe in infinity find it easier to understand that infinity is possible out in space because we can imagine how something can get bigger and bigger, but find it hard to understand that the same applies in the other direction.

I happen to believe that if infinity is possible in one direction then it makes sense that it also goes in the other direction too. The other possibility if infinity is not a reality, then I believe that everything goes round in a circle, a very big circle, but if that is so, what is outside of that circle?? More circles Made up of more big circles made up of more big circles? I would so love to know. I could go on forever! And I would probably end up repeating myself!

This Brocoli has similar patterns to a river or a tree, or veins in our body.

Beautiful Fractal patterns in a cauliflower.

What is a fractal? The definition is: A mathematically generated pattern that is reproducible at any magnification or reduction.

If you hadn’t considered fractals, and patterns in nature and all around us I hope that I have helped spark something new or re-ignited something you had not put much thought into for a while.

Tristan Titeux, Custom Carpentry.co.uk, Contemporary and Eco bespoke fitted furniture.

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About the author

Tristan Titeux
Tristan Titeux is Belgian Contemporary Fitted Furniture Designer with eco sustainability as his passion. He founded Custom Carpentry in 2003 and now has a team of talented crafstmen who build his fitted furniture for private clients in London. He has also designed furniture on various occasions for Westminster Abbey as well as furniture for TV home makeover programs such as "60 Minute Makeover" on ITV and "Homes for the Brave" on SKY. He is knows as a pioneer in his field because he has used eco materials never see in fitted furniture before. He leaves people feeling totally satisfied that they have chosen to contribute towards a positive future for our children by choosing fitted furniture with a conscience.

2 Comments for Not so Random Squares and the patterns of nature and the world.

Kamerine Neo

Am inspired by your vision and authenticity. It is true we can no longer live or act with disregard for the consequences. Wishing you all success in your projects Tristan.

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Tristan, Custom Carpentry

Hello Kamerine,
Thank you for your supportive message, I appreciate it and I am delighted to hear that I inspired you, I am in turn inspired by your kindness, best of luck to you too, it I can help you let me know.

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