 the
Meigle
The so called "Meigle" is an ancient Celtic symbol, found carved
on gravestones near Perth, Scotland. Here, it is used as a symbol
of the interconnections between all living things.
In its original form the Meigle was a "Celtic Knot," with all of
its interstices connected and overlaps at all of its junctions.
The knot was based on a Christian cross at its center, and likely
symbolized an early medieval view of the Universe as the closed,
static, eternal house of God. When I adopted the Meigle for ECOTECTURE,
I decided to "open-up" the graphic to symbolize the dynamic nature
of life, ever forming and evolving. The radiant sun shines through
the life web, energizing it, and the generative cosmos beyond energizes
all that we are able to know.
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Here, I show some versions of the Meigle I created when working
on the ECOTECTURE site design. Every great period of Architecture
has developed its own design language. As the ecological design
epoch comes to the forefront, it, too, will need a language that
symbolizes nature and ecology to express it's underlying design
principles. Adopting natural themes, or finding symbols with ancient
roots, can guide us to creating a new design language. The beauty
of the Meigle is that it can look Cetic, Chinese, African, Native
American or, in the case of ECOTECTURE'S Meigle, Universal.
Artwork by Philip S. Wenz © 2003
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