Elements of Design

The Golden Mean - Proportion /6

This wonderful number, which is also known as the Golden Section, the Golden Ratio, or the Golden Number, has more than mathematical applications; it is also significant in the living world. We can see that natural organisms, including the human body, are really based on the relationship. In preferring proportions based on we are therefore following natural laws.

We have seen how artists have always sought to establish relationships in their works, and some of these relationships can be expressed by ratios. The plans and drawings of the architecture of past ages show how preoccupied architects have always been with the problem of ratio, not only of the overall shape of a building but also of the smaller shapes.

They considered the ratios of windows and doors and related them to the ratios of the outside walls. They also calculated the height, length and width of each room in relation to each other

The Golden Section was also much in evidence in Greek architecture

In this way they created buildings and other works whose ratios were related to each other and through to the living world.

A building then was a most complicated system of ratios. In order to make it possible to arrive at a set of perfect proportions, they often

related their measurements to . In some cases they it found just as easily by instinct, as the people in the

experiment described on page 1, in other cases all the relationships were worked out by mathematics.