Through my thesis, I wanted to create patterns based on Geology. Generally, we think, patterns are created with repeated elements that have no meaning. With this work, I wanted to create city patterns with their own character so that the patterns would have special meaning. The city patterns represent cities and invite comparison with each other.
There are various ways to create patterns. For my thesis, I chose density as a method to describe three cities, which have different population densities and different culture, Manhattan of the Unite States, Seoul of South Korea, and City of Sydney of Australia. Because many systems like traffic and city plans are built based on population, if they have different population densities they also have different category densities.
After choosing three cities, I categorized them. Each city has three different patterns: the density of population in residents and commuters, the density of subway stations, the density of international visitors, and the density of trees. Comparing the density of each category, I graded them and added colors and numbers of elements depending on the information. Each density is shown through colors with simple elements. The depth of color represents the intensity of density. I have limited the number of the color and elements for creating city patterns, but the colors and elements look differently based on different density. Comparing the city patterns, they show the viewers which city has more concern about which category.
After diagramming each city with each element based on information, I repeated the city diagrams and made patterns. Because of the shape of cities and the differences of densities, they can have their own unique patterns. Even though the patterns for each category were repeated in the same way, each pattern from the same category has a distinctive look.
Manhattan has the densest population among them. The subway station pattern of Manhattan is denser than that of Seoul but the tree pattern of Manhattan is 10 times less than that of Seoul. The viewers can see comparison through the patterns. Because the City of Sydney has the densest international visitors, the pattern has the most various color tones and many numbers of elements while Seoul has only one color and one number of elements. Even though the City of Sydney has less population and the smallest space among them, it is the city with the most concern for the environment in the city.
In my thesis, I tried to show patterns that represented the personality of the cities and the differences among them. I sought out a process of depicting cities and showing them as patterns. While my primary goal was to create patterns based on information, my hope is that those patterns suggest ways for each city to solve its problems. They can try to make their cities nicer for people who live in the cities and for international visitors by including more green spaces, comfortable transportations and so on.