Proportion (architecture) - Proportioned Vs Dimensioned Modules

Proportioned Vs Dimensioned Modules

The Greek classical orders are all proportioned rather than dimensioned or measured modules and this is because the earliest modules were not based on body parts and their spans (fingers, palms, hands, feet, remen, cubits, ells, yards, paces and fathoms, which became standardized for bricks and boards before the time of the Greeks) but rather column diameters and the widths of arcades and fenestrations.

Typically one set of column diameter modules used for casework and architectural moldings by the Egyptians, Romans and English is based on the proportions of the palm and the finger, while another less delicate module used for door and window trim, tile work, and roofing in Mesopotamia and Greece is based on the proportions of the hand and the thumb. Board modules tend to round down for planing and finishing while masonry tends to round down for mortar. Fabric, carpet and rugs tend to be manufactured in feet, yards and ells.

In Palladian or Greek Revival architecture as in Jeffersonian architecture, modern modular dimensional systems based on the golden ratio and other pleasing proportional and dimensional relationships begin to influence the design as with the modules of the volute. One interface between proportion and dimension is the Egyptian inscription grid. Grid coordinates can be used for things like unit rise and run.

The architectural foot as a reference to the human body was incorporated in architectural standards in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Europe. Common multiples of a foot in buildings tend to be decimal or octal and this affects the modulars used in building materials. Elsewhere, it is a multiple of the palm, hand, or finger that is the primary referent. Feet were usually divided into palms or hands, multiples of which were also remen and cubits.

The first known foot referenced as a standard was from Sumer, where a rod at the feet of a statue of Gudea of Lagash from around 2575 BC is divided into a foot and other units. Egyptian foot units have the same length as Mesopotamian foot units, but are divided into palms rather than hands converting the proportional divisions from sexagesimal to septenary units. In both cases feet are further subdivided into digits.

In Ancient Greece, there are several different foot standards generally referred to in the literature as short, median and long, which give rise to the different architectural styles known as Ionic and Doric in discussions of the classical orders of architecture. The Roman foot or pes is divided into digitus, uncia and palmus, which are incorporated into the Corinthian style.

Some of the earliest records of the use of the foot come from the Persian Gulf bordered by India (Meluhha), Pakistan, Balochistan, Oman (Makkan), Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain (Dilmun), the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia where in Persian architecture it is a sub division of the Great circle of the earth into 360 degrees. In Egypt, one degree was 10 Itrw or River journeys. In Greece a degree was 60 Mia chillioi or thousands and comprised 600 stadia, with one stadion divided into 600 pous or feet. In Rome a degree was 75 Mille Passus or 1000 passus. Thus the degree division was 111 km and the stadion 185 m. One nautical mile was 10 stadia or 6000 feet. The incorporation of proportions which relate the building to the earth it stands on are called sacred geometry.