Parquet Deformations

First, what exactly is a 'parquet deformation', and what is its relation to tessellation? At first glance, it has no obvious reference or connection to tessellation matters, with the obvious thought referring to flooring per se. Indeed, the term and concept may be wholly unfamiliar to most people, even with an interest in tessellations, which I will shortly detail. Such an aspect of tessellation has received relatively scant coverage, and in my opinion disproportionately so as to its inherent worth; the effect is most gratifying. Therefore, to clarify such matters, I now define a parquet deformation as a 'geometrical tessellating metamorphosis'. The parquet deformation is usually shown as a 'long strip' of a horizontal presentation (although other formats are possible), of which the tiling changes, subtly so at each alternate stage, almost inconsequentially so, but drastically so when seen from beginning to end; the beginning and end tiles bearing no relation to each other. A few typical examples are shown below, Fig. 1. 

Fig. 1. Three Exemplar Parquet Deformations

My interest in parquet deformation is long-standing, going back to my earliest days of interest in tessellation, in 1987. My introduction to the subject arose from Douglas Hofstadter's 1983 article in Scientific American, 'Parquet Deformations: Patterns of Tiles That Shift Gradually in One Dimension', this being the first popular account, featuring instances from the design studio of William Huff, who can properly be described as the instigator. Suitably impressed, I then designed examples of my own, first by hand, and latterly (2021)  by computer, albeit still in effect by hand, rather than programming. 

As such, in contrast to any 'orthodox' picture, for example, a portrait or landscape, or indeed a tessellation in the 'normal' sense, with the eye wandering 'at whim', a parquet deformation is not intended to be viewed in a generalised sense but is instead intended to be read in a specific way. For the commonly-to-be-seen strip, as detailed above, this is then 'scanned' by the eye, in a left-to-right or vice versa direction, as in reading a line of text. Whereupon having so done, a given tiling thus can be seen to gradually metamorphosis in outline, until upon 'completion' of its metamorphosis it is unrecognisable from its beginning. 

As alluded to above, different formats are indeed possible, and not just the 'usual' portrayal of the long strip. Indeed, the only limit is one's imagination. Frequently seen are square blocks, and for the sake of variety, I show a long strip; albeit this wasn't thought through at the time; it is lacking in aesthetics. I also show a rectangular loop, of which in principle this is merely four parquet deformations butted together and then bent to form the loop. Furthermore, one is not necessarily confined to a square based; equilateral triangles can also be used. All these are shown on subsequent pages .

What I term as aesthetics is a most important part of parquet deformations, in that this determines the quality. This is a vital aspect of parquet deformations and is too often neglected. As alluded to above, since Huff's day, the computer has in effect stormed the world of design and is being used more and more, to the exclusion of hand drawings. Indeed, with the advent of this tool, it opens up new possibilities that simply are impractical by hand; different formats, more complex examples. it also has the potential of time-saving; drawing by hand can indeed be laborious Be that as it may, what still counts is the inherent quality or aesthetics of the design. What makes for a 'good', or indeed 'bad' parquet deformation? As a basic statement, those by Huff's students serve as this model; they possess a degree of 'elegance' that others in this field do not possess. And I might add that mine do too, but differently subtly from Huff's. Huff's instances can be broadly divided into two types (a) those that evolve into simple geometric tiles: e.g. Crossover, Dizzy Bee, Consternation, and (b) those that more involved final tile, such as Crazy Cogs, Arabesque, and Curracha. In contrast, mine are all 'simple' geometrical tiles, such as a right-angled triangle to a rectangle (No. 1). Another important aspect is the tempo. By this, I mean that the changing of the tiles should be neither too 'quick' nor 'slow'. A 'quick' example would be where the change is too drastic, of just a cycle of say, two or three stages. Here, the change would be too quick for the eye to view. 'Slow' would say, one hundred, where change is imperceptible at each stage, and so would make for tedious viewing. 

A feature of this way of designing is that the finished deformation is not predictable, resulting in a pleasing surprise upon completion. As a rule, I favour a simple beginning, typically of a square, as this acts as a fundamental aspect, in contrast to an arbitrary geometrical shape. A different type of approach is to begin and end a deformation with a certain polygon or geometrical shape in mind. Some examples of this include the Laves tilings, where Craig Kaplan [*] shows this. Note that mostly in contrast to the Huff examples, mine can in a sense be continued; for example, No.4 can be butted on to No.1, which can, in turn, be butted with No.5, and so on. Mine are broadly of a self-contained nature, with a beginning, middle and end, where typically they begin quietly, 'came to life' in the middle, before fading towards the end. In essence, each of these is a one-off, albeit as alluded to above, and can indeed be joined if so desired. In contrast, Craig Kaplan's are more of an 'all-encompassing' approach. For instance, he set himself the challenge of combining all suitable Laves tilings as parquet deformations and met with success. 

However, despite the above 'revival', such as it is, somewhat disappointingly I still find so few people undertaking new examples or who are at least interested in this aspect of tessellation, and so I would be more than interested in hearing from fellow enthusiasts on this matter, especially from the ex-students' of Huff's. Of special interest would be to make contact with the designers of the parquet deformations in the Scientific American article and other publications. If you are one of these people reading this, please do step forward! A full listing is given on the dedicated page 'People'. 

Created 24 June 2024. Last Updated 24 JUne 2024