the development of the form bank

Development of the form bank >> (Entwicklung der morphoteck)
 

Click the arrows which appear left and right in the middle of the window. With each click on the right hand arrow a range develops where the shapes increase in size according to the Plastic Number. First in width, then in height. This results in two mirrored groups of rectangles. One of the groups we give a third dimension; the length is equal to the width and height of the smallest block, bottom right. In the group of forms this produces we can distinguish bar-shaped forms (red), flat shapes which can be characterized as plates (green), and blocks (blue). The grey group which remains in the middle consist of less well-defined forms. 
 

Within each group one can again identify forms which have properties of a bar, plate or block. In the centre of each group there is a “blank” form – a term which Van der Laan uses to indicate a form with a neutral character. If we compare the blank forms from the three groups we can see the forms which lay in the middle of these, in the grey group, light up. These grey shapes also represent the bar, plate and block within their group. 
 

If we not only vary the width and height of the rectangles but also the length, this produces a full range of rectangular shapes: the entire form bank, built with the smallest, bottom-right block as a unit to seven types of size, within one order of size (or magnitude).