geometric design part 2

Geometric Design part 2

Welcome back. This is some of my favorite content relating to design and the natural
world. We're going to kick this off with the ubiquitous golden section, which is derived
from the divine proportion. The various shapes that emerge from this proportion show
up in the design of: man, animals, plants, geology, Stonehenge, the pyramids, and much
of what occurs around us. In the mid 1800's, a psychologist named Gustav Fechner did an
extensive study to determine the proportions in rectangles that were most pleasing to
humans, the golden rectangle won "hands down".

This will be our subject of analysis today. It is
a beautifully simple little house in my home
town. I have heard many people comment on
it's elegance and it will be interesting to
explore some reasons that it is so attractive.
To get us started, since we looked at the
golden section, let's see if the "GS" shows up
in the overall proportion.

Looks like we "struck gold" on that idea. The
main facade of the house, vertically from the
water table to the architrave, and horizontally
from the corner to the door, is a perfect
golden rectangle. If you follow the spiral in the
rectangle on the right side, you'll notice that
even windows and panes are described by the
main golden section. Let's look for more GS
relationships.

As mentioned above, the window panes are
all identical golden rectangles. If we keep
looking, I'm sure we'll find innumerable
examples of this rectangle in the various
details. Let's see what other patterns are
occuring in this facade.

On the subject of repeating elements, a basic
component to visual harmony, it seems that
the area that describes each upper and lower
window, as well as the door to the top of the
pediment, is a multiple of the overall width of
this part of the house. I'm also noticing that the
stone wall is approximately the same height as
the width of the windows and doors. What
other repeating geometry can you find?

My purpose in writing these blogs is to do my small part in raising expectations in the area of design.
The design can be architecture, graphics, or anything that is conceived of by humans. Lets hold
ourselves, and anyone working with us, to the same standard of excellence that the designer of this
house held himself to. Let's not compromise to allow room for a larger flat screen tv, jacuzzi, or
favorite couch. A crucial element in "green" constuction is longevity and durability. If we build houses
that are durable enough to last 50 or 100+ years, they have to be designed in a "timeless" enough
fashion that someone will want to keep the basic structure and appointments of the building intact
after fads and trends have changed. Unfortunately, beautiful and timeless design is too rare in the
landscape of new construction (with some very nice exceptions). If you type "geometric design" or
"sacred geometry" into google, you'll find plenty of interesting reading. Please forward this to anyone
that could find it useful.