Traditional Art in Digital Thinking
- hazifahatechdesign
- Mar 16
- 3 min read
To this day, people still use design principles derived from local traditional art, which are analyzed and transformed into modern designs. The most prominent example is the use of Islamic geometric patterns, which are often applied in architectural design, decoration, and sculpture such as Alâeddin Mosque, Konya, Turkey.
Traditional motifs are being reimagined in contemporary art, where designers use software technology to reinterpret the patterns. By experimenting with the basic principles of the original design, they create fresh, innovative works that connect heritage with modern creativity. In King Abdullah Financial District Mosque, the facade exterior interprate the eight-pointed Islamic star by using parametric approach. The outcome is an active, visually dynamic, porous metal and stone façade that anticipates the future while being grounded in tradition.
How Islamic Pattern are Formed?
Among all the Islamic geometric patterns we see today, the foundation of the geometry is essentially based on the circle. By subdividing its radii into equal divisions, the pattern emerges symmetrically into four, five, or six equal parts. The complexity arises when these shapes are repeatedly extended through tessellation, rotation, and mirroring.
Digital Advancement of Islamic Pattern
Each core pattern formed using the above method is refined further. Every complete ornament is produced by drawing line segments that cross the midpoints of the edges of the base polygon. This method is known as the 'polygons in contact technique' in Hankin’s approach. This creates new star patterns that are generated through polygonal tessellation. Also, Hankin’s explanation naturally points to an algorithm in which edges are extended outward from the midpoints of each tiling edge, and then trimmed at the points where they intersect.
Optimizing Efficiency in Design
Despite a complex look of the modern Islamic pattern, a recent study has shown that the use of digitalized traditional pattern on ornaments will:
Able to produce continuously seamless deformation patterns using parameters.
Enable designers to modify core parameters in order to investigate diverse design possibilities, while fine-tuning results according to specific factors.
Encourages a design process that is both well-informed and adaptive, with decisions guided by thorough data analysis and simulation results.
These benefits make the approach ideal for projects requiring a balance of constructibility, cost efficiency, and geometric complexity in each tessellation. This ensures that no piece is mistakenly overlooked during fabrication, alignment, or installation.
How To Generate Deformation Pattern?
We created our own designs to explore variations in Islamic art. The pattern component has the ability to modify the outcome using factor value, which then will creating the starting and ending domain number. On our exploration design, we utilize the Parakeet plugin into Grasshopper with that also applying the Hankin’s method. This tool has already its multiple pattern tiling template.
Then, we extract the centroid from each tile to generate the desired pattern on each point. With this, the pattern outcome will gradually shift based on the set value. The graphic shown below are the visual of how it gradually shifting its pattern as the domain parametermoved. This scripted are specially design to fasten the process of generating design iterations seamlessly. This makes it easier and faster to create new design variations with smooth transitions and reliable results.
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