We initiate a systematic study of pattern avoidance in rectangulations. We give a formal definition of such patterns and investigate rectangulations that avoid $\top$-like patterns - the pattern $\top$ and its rotations. For every $L \subseteq \{\top, \, \vdash, \, \bot, \, \dashv \}$ we enumerate $L$-avoiding rectangulations, both weak and strong. In particular, we show $\top$-avoiding weak rectangulations are enumerated by Catalan numbers and construct bijections to several Catalan structures. Then, we prove that $\top$-avoiding strong rectangulations are in bijection with several classes of inversion sequences, among them $I(010,101,120,201)$ and $I(011,201)$ - which leads to a solution of the conjecture that these classes are Wilf-equivalent. Finally, we show that $\{\top, \bot\}$-avoiding strong rectangulations are in bijection with recently introduced rushed Dyck paths.

30 pages, 21 figures