Pattern Language

Pattern Language

The more we study patterns in nature, the more nature-smart we become, the more truly intelligent. Nature is the source of pattern. Be they patterns of color, or form, or texture, or structure, or relationship, or movement, nature is the fountain of infinite intelligence. The more we study patterns in nature, the more clearly we see ourselves.

Example: study the branching structure of a madrone tree. Now open a physiology textbook, and study the branching structure of arteries and veins in the body. Notice anything? Biomimicry is the application of patterns of nature to design. The Fibonacci sequence is a sequence of numbers where each subsequent number is the sum of the two preceding it. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144. It is a mathematical modeling of a principle that expresses itself in the living world, governing the structuring of objects as varied as the shell of the Chambered Nautilus, and the petal arrangement of the Sunflower. The award-winning Pax Scientific impeller, designed to circulate water in storage tanks, is modeled on the spiral structure of a Calla lily. The Shinkansen bullet train was inspired by the bill of a kingfisher. The biomimetic study of nature is something that indigenous and traditional cultures have been doing since the dawn of time, not merely at the aesthetic and material level, but at the cultural level. Indigenous engineer David Karabelnikoff talks about the design of anthropometric canoes in his traditional Alaskan culture. These sea-faring people built canoes specifically for the body of the person who would be using them. Many of the MARTIAL ARTS have arisen from studying the pattern language of animal movement. Ancestrally, those who best understood the patterns of nature were most likely to survive. This is still true.