Regularity

Imagine a square tile, bisected into two triangles, one black, one white. Imagine two such tiles, placed next to one another. Out of this simple configuration emerges a surprising number of possible arrangements. Sixty-four, to be precise, as each tile can be oriented four ways, shifting the apex of the black triangle from corner to corner. Now imagine a whole floor or tapestry covered with a regular pattern of these repeating tiles. This is the power of the Truchet Tile, so named because the Dominican priest Sebastien Truchet first described what he called the "fecundity of these combinations" in 1704, after experimenting with some ceramic tiles he came across at a building site for a chateau near Orléans (Smith 374).

Imagine a square tile, bisected into two triangles, one black, one white. Imagine two such tiles, placed next to one another. Out of this simple configuration emerges a surprising number of possible arrangements. Sixty-four, to be precise, as each tile can be oriented four ways, shifting the apex of the black triangle from corner to corner. Now imagine a whole floor or tapestry covered with a regular pattern of these repeating tiles. This is the power of the Truchet Tile, so named because the Dominican priest Sebastien Truchet first described what he called the "fecundity of these combinations" in 1704, after experimenting with some ceramic tiles he came across at a building site for a chateau near Orléans (Smith 374).

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