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.

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