Geometric Ornament in Architecture, Art, and Design

Ornament, as practiced by architects, artists, and designers for a hundred years, presents itself as a system of order and grid, and not merely as adornment. Long before the recently occurring renaissance of the ornament, the Studio of Claudia and Thomas Weil developed 1,000 contemporary ornaments in 14 groups including numerous variations with intriguing names like "the extended octopus," "angle-square-triangle," "Chessband," Shark's landing," and "Africa, half past two." Each offers fresh, exciting new varieties of geometric ornament that can be developed from a common grid. With the addition of color these patterns take on almost limitless possibilities. These are introduced here, together with applications in architecture, art and design, as well as an overview of the history of the modern ornament.

Thomas Weil is an artist and architect who has been developing a new school of the ornament for 30 years. Since 1996, the has run a studio collaboration with Claudia Weil. Projects they have realized included Karstadt (Gütersloh), No Limit (Berlin), European Patent Office (Munich), Pan-Clinic, Port Authority, Postbank, and McKinsey (all in Cologne).