Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Proportions
First, we all agreed in class discussions that proportions of an object are based on a person's ability to observe said object in its contextual surroundings. (i.e. smallest man, tallest woman) Secondly we agreed that in built objects: furniture, product design, and buildings, the most effective proportions are those that relate back to the human body. So why are the golden rectangle and Fibonacci Spiral so often used in architecture? I guess the bigger question is are proportions only important from an aesthetic point of view, or also from an experiential point of view?
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Proportioning systems such as the Golden Section, and Fibonacci Spiral are more important than just giving us an aesthetically pleasing product. Such proportioning systems are designed to give us a mathematical formula to follow, and when correctly done, they allow for the repetition of objects.
ReplyDeleteProportion is so ingrained within us that is is something that we can not separate out, there is both a functional and aesthetic side to proportion. However, if the object is meant to be experienced we can automatically say whether that object, (say a chair) will be comfortable based on its aesthetic appearance. That is perhaps reducing it down a bit far, but everything that we as humans make is designed to be used or experienced in some way, and how much of and often we use something depends on the aesthetics, on how much we enjoy using it, how it feels to be used, or even how we feel when others see us using said object.