HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE GOLDEN RECTANGLE?
It is a shape that is picked overwhelmingly to be most pleasing to the eye compared to similar shapes. It has been a design idea for thousands of years. It is used everywhere in “Ancient Roman Architecture.” It is a specific relationship between length and width in a rectangle.
Specifically: In geometry, a golden rectangle is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio, which is (the Greek letter phi), where. is approximately 1.618. Golden rectangles exhibit a special form of self-similarity: All rectangles created by adding or removing a square are Golden rectangles as well.
So how does this apply to architecture?
- This can be a window sash ratio. Used contemporarily it would be horizontal.
- The ratio in a wall length to height.
- It can be a window sash, in a window, in a wall.
This is the shape that our eye is most comfortable to become fixed on. We can take this information and deduct that if we want to create a horizonal movement to the eye we must create a rectangle with a width longer than the height of the golden rectangle.
