Enjoy every minute you spend playing!by Eva Konrad | 08.11.2012

One more go One more go

Tetris, these are four small, square modules falling from the top corner of the monitor in various formations to stagger on top of each other at the bottom of the playing field. If the tower gets too high the player loses. This game was developed in 1984 by Russian computer scientist Alexei Paschitnow. He had the brilliant idea and realized it with the means at hand back then in a smart way. “Enjoy every minute you spend playing!” Paschitnow said in an interview in 2007 with online magazine golem.de.

Simple and yet exciting the smallsquares characterized the world of computer games during the early nineties.They appeared later in various forms in every-day life. There still are ice cube vessels around allowing to upgrade a drink with frozen Tetris bricks. This is accompanied by T-shirts, bags, mobile phone covers, bedclothes and much more, in Tetris forms and with Tetris patterns printed on them.

Modularly built

The lines of this game was no new discovery, but since the invention of Tetris you can find analogies to this computer game in the field of architecture. Be it layouts the structure of which is based on this system, or cobble stones displaying a similar pattern in the way they are laid.

The modular setup of Tetris with the four squares arranged towards each other is used as a planning basis over and over again. The façade of Markas office building by feld 72 architects plays as naturally with the Tetris theme as BFTA Mimarlik does with Miracle-Residence. However, the question whether it is the remembrance of the computer game of the 90s that inspired the architects is still unanswered.

Tetris within the urban Context

In urban contexts you will find the Tetris symptom in various forms. Dutch architectural firm Maurer United Architects brought the computer game in the form of real structures into three-dimensional urban space already in 2001. Under the name “urban Tetris” the project within the cityscape of Amsterdam attracted people’s attention.

In 2009, Australian artists presented in cooperation with Gaffa gallery their "One more go One more go“ installation at Abercrombie Lane in Sydney. Several meters high, colorful and three-dimensional Tetris sculptures dominated a particularly narrow part of the lane. They were attached to two opposing façades and seemed to be falling down along the walls in an uncontrolled manner. In contrast to the originally modular surface they mindlessly fell from the sky within the urban city environment. No modular background structure and no player at the console controlled their flight path. This conflict should have occurred immediately to any observer who knew the Tetris computer game. Accident, or not. Maybe the artist simply wanted to find out how a modular element behaves in an arbitrary and unstructured environment.

The greatest effect the installation had at night, since the colorful elements were illuminated from within and thus lit the streets with their typical Tetris colors.

The psychological Effect of Tetris

In an interview in 2007, Alexei Paschitnow said something very interesting about his development: "There is a psychological effect behind it! You keep carrying out tasks, there is always a new problem waiting for you, and you solve it the best way you can. However, what’s left is only your mistakes. The ugly gaps on the playing field. So you are always motivated to also solve this task!” This quote seems to be almost universal, and it suits perfectly the various aspects of architecture.