Rules of Proportion in Architecture

PATWICK SUPPES T h e ancient Roman architect Vitruvius begins the second chapter of the first book of his The Ten Books on Architecture with the statement that architecture Although the other works on architecture from the ancient world are mostly lost, there is every reason to believe that Vitruvius was stating a commonly and widely accepted view in his emphasis on order, eurythmy, which we may think of as proportion, and symmetry. In the first chapter of Book 3, he also makes the familiar classical assertion that the principles of proportion and symmetry used in architecture are in fact derived from the symmetry to be found in the shape of the human body. He even states his conclusion this way: "Therefore, since nature has designed the human body so that its members are duly proportioned to the frame as a whole, it appears that the ancients had good reason for their rule, that in perfect buildings, the different members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general scheme" [Dover edition, Of In Chapter III of Book 6, Vitruvius gives specific rules for the proportions principal rooms; I cite three typical cases. In width and length, atriums are designed according to three classes. The first is laid out by dividing the length into five parts and giving three parts to the width; the second, by dividing it into three parts and assigning two parts to the width; the third, by using the width to describe a square figure with equal sides, drawing a diagonal line in this square, and giving the atrium the length of this diagonal line. [ 1771 Peristyles, lying athwart, should be one third longer than they are deep, and their columns as high as the colonnades are wide. Intercolumniations of peristyles should be not less than three nor more than four times the thickness of the columns. 11791 Dining rooms ought to be twice as long as they are wide. The height sf all oblong rooms should be calculated by adding together their measured length 352