I think a simplified version of this would be appealing?

Very appealing to me.

The irregularity & imprecise, organic nature of the structure is what does it for me.

A lot of the intricacy in patterns can be achieved with texturing

I think I'll sic Fabrice on it.

Perhaps something like this......

Very nice design ! I begin the modeling.

Nancy, you're right. The textures will be very useful for adding all the irregularities. I don't know if I can use it but displacement mapping would be the better way for adding bricks or tiles.

Last I heard, Martin and the render wranglers would MUCH prefer it if you do Not use displacement maps.
Displacement maps add millions of pieces of geometry and slowed down the renders more than anything else when rendering TWO.
Someone please correct me if I am mistaken.

If they take too long to render, we'll change them to Bump maps but if Fabrice wants to start with Displacement maps, we'll see how it goes...?