Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Fractals Get Some Attention

“Desktop fractal” by kevin dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Many people involved in the design world have heard of visual fractals, but aren’t really sure what they are.  A July article in The New York Times can help change that situation.

Sabrina Imbler, reports on fractals found in some very special vegetables on July 8 (“Cauliflower and Chaos, Fractals in Every Floret,” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/science/cauliflower-fractals.html).  Imbler’s work details research done to understand the fractal nature of cauliflower and extending the discussion of fractals from vegetables to architecture likely makes it easier to grasp some significant concepts.  Most of us have seen cauliflower at some point so statements such as the following by Imbler make important ideas about fractals readily accessible: “And the cauliflowers they simulated and grew were simply not fractal enough. The patterns were visible only at two fractal scales, such as one spiral nested in another spiral. By contrast, a regular cauliflower often displays self-similarity in at least seven fractal scales, meaning a spiral nested in a spiral nested in a spiral nested in a spiral nested in a spiral nested in a spiral nested in, ultimately, another spiral.”  Via the images shared of cauliflower, Imbler does a tremendous amount to explain, particularly via example, what a fractal even is.  Her article also makes it clear how important fractals can be in nature.

“Fractal Vegatable” by Rum Bucolic Ape is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

The Wikipedia page covering fractals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal) shares lots of useful information about fractals and their discussion of natural fractals, with its examples, can be particularly useful to designers.  Clouds and ferns exhibit fractal patterns with the same sorts of patterns being present in each at varying scales.

Having the design world develop a better understanding of visual fractals, particularly those that might occur in nature, would be great because viewing fractal patterns seems to do all sorts of good things for what goes on in our minds – from improving our mood to lowering our stress levels.  Looking at them is relaxing.  There are all sorts of positive implications for our performance at work.

Designing with useful fractals becomes more viable as more individuals are familiar with what they really are and why anyone should attempt to include them.  However, at the moment creating mentally supportive fractal patterns in art or carpeting or fabrics or in designed forms themselves remains a specialized skill.  Increased knowledge of fractals by members of the general public, encouraged by articles such as Imbler’s, and the growing focus on science-based design make it likely that in the future design professionals will find themselves working regularly on and with fractal based options.  Terrapin Bright Green and Rita Trombin, in conjunction with several partners, has developed a toolkit for designers interested in fractals and biophilic design (“Working with Fractals:  A Resource for Practitioners of Biophilic Design”) which is available at http://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Working-with-Fractals-by-Rita-Trombin_v2021-06-21_TBG-COST-RESTORE.pdf

Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.