Architectural Proportions
In architecture the whole is not just a building but the set and setting of the site. The things that make a building and its site "well shaped" include the orientation of the site and the buildings on it to the features of the grounds on which it is situated. Light, shade, wind, elevation, choice of materials, all should relate to a standard and say what is it that makes it what it is, and what is it that makes it not something else.
Vitruvius thought of proportion in terms of unit fractions such as those used in the Greek Orders of Architecture.
Scribes had been using unit fractions for their calculations at least since the time of the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll and Rhind Mathematical Papyrus in Egypt and the Epic of Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia.
One example of symmetry might be found in the inscription grids of the Egyptians which were based on parts of the body and their symmetrical relation to each other, fingers, palms, hands, feet, cubits, etc.; Multiples of body proportions would be found in the arrangements of fields and in the buildings people lived in.
A cubit could be divided into fingers, palms, hands and so could a foot, or a multiple of a foot. Special units related to feet as the hypotenuse of a 3/4/5 triangle with one side a foot were named remen and introduced into the proportional system very early on. Curves were also defined in a similar manner and used by architects in their design of arches and other building elements.
These proportional elements were used by the Persians, Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans, in laying out cities, stadiums, roads, processional ways, public buildings, ports, various areas for crops and grazing beasts of burden, so as to arrange the city as well as the building to be well proportioned,
Architectural practice has often used proportional systems to generate or constrain the forms considered suitable for inclusion in a building. In almost every building tradition there is a system of mathematical relations which governs the relationships between aspects of the design. These systems of proportion are often quite simple; whole number ratios or incommensurable ratios (such as the vesica piscis or the golden ratio)which were determined using geometrical methods.
Generally the goal of a proportional system is to produce a sense of coherence and harmony among the elements of a building.
Read more about this topic: Proportion (architecture)
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