When I saw the Greek building, always I think about why it could give a sense of magnificent to me. After reading The Ten Book of Architecture, only I realize the use and important of symmetry, proportion and harmony in designing building. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements. When perfecting this art of building, the Greeks invented the architectural orders: Doric, Ionicand Corinthian. It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body.
SYMMETRY
Note that Vitruvius begins with a focal point, the navel, and the elements are measured from that point, forming the geometry of circles and squares. The designer nowadays are following this to do the design. For me, the outcome will look nicer compare to the one didn’t following this steps.
PROPORTION
The relationships between elements were also the mathematical relationships found in other parts of nature. If God designed with these ratios when He made man, then man should design the built environment with the ratios of sacred geometry. "Thus in the human body there is a kind of symmetrical harmony between forearm, foot, palm, finger, and other small parts," writes Vitruvius, "and so it is with perfect buildings."
Designing with Symmetry and Proportion
We could see the Tuscan Temples applying the proportion and symmetrical using the perfect 10. It follow the calculation for example the arrangement of the column at the façade, the wall of the temple even until the details of the column.
We can purposely use the concepts of symmetry and proportion. Could see that the modern architecture in early 20th century defied classical symmetry by design asymmetrical structure. Proportion has been used in spiritual architecture to accentuate the holy. For example, the St. Michael’s Cathedral at Qingdao in China shows not only the symmetry from the main entrance, but also how proportion in space planning at the interior could bring attention to the central nave and the altar.
By examining the human body, Vitruvius understood the importance of "symmetrical proportions" in design. As Vitruvius writes, "in perfect buildings the different members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general scheme." This is the same theory behind architectural design today. Our intrinsic sense of what we consider beautiful may come from symmetry and proportion.
In conclusion, while designing, we not only have to consider the arrangement of form to be symmetry and proportion, the space planning, the structural arrangement until the details of the structure or finishes if following the symmetrical and proportion, the design will be harmony from inside to outside.
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