Tiles: The sum is greater than the parts

It must be the stunning variety of of Portuguese wall tiles that keep me endlessly fascinated with them. In a Bolt, I’m known to mark down a location when I pass a particularly interesting example. Poor Scott - on our walks I’m always stopping to take more pictures of them - oo! there’s one I haven’t seen yet, and then he patiently waits for me to admire and snap a picture.

What I love most about the tiles is that while it is pretty to look at one, when you put more than one together, they (usually) make a pattern. The sum is greater than the parts. The way to think of this is how many tiles does it take to complete the pattern? I’ll use my favorite tile pattern as an example. (For those with fabulous memories, I did show this one on our first post about tiles. Like I said, it’s my favorite!)

While the lines are graceful, it sort of looks like a mess without coherence.

If place the tiles together, as a 2 x 2, then a pattern appears. But is it the only pattern?

Once we move to a 4 x 4 grid, the full pattern emerges.

What does a pattern look like on an entire building? I’ll use a different building as the example. The building with my favorite tile isn’t very cute. First the tile pattern, then the building.

Note that the building on the left is painted yellow, while the building on the right is pink tile.

Certainly there are tiles here that don’t make a pattern. There are a number of single color tiles, and a smattering that don’t make up a patten.

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A couple of 2 x 2’s.

And now the more interesting 4 x 4’s.

That’s all for now.

Love from Lisbon,

Amy