![]() Like all aesthetic ratios ( Le Corbusier’s “Modulor” and van der Laan’s “Plastic Number” are equally worthy), its broad application in design provides a degree of order and consistency to a work, something important in architecture because a building is rarely experienced from a single distance. But the fact that its more mystical properties have been comprehensively refuted should not be used to relegate this theory to the category of esoterica. The problem with such claims is that researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that the Golden Mean is not a universally attractive proportion and it is not statistically significant in nature or in the human body. The contemporary cult of the Golden Mean presents these overlays as evidence of the hidden secret of the universe. However, while most symbols of the ancient world have now lost their power, the Golden Mean still enjoys a cult following, with many hundreds of websites showing its spiral form overlaid on sunflowers, shells, famous paintings and the faces of popular actors. The Golden Ratio was found to be applied to the piers and windows of Durham Cathedral.įor the ancient architect, the Golden Rectangle must have offered a recipe for creating buildings that were easy to draw, pleasing to the eye and, most importantly, could be justified on the basis that they represented a connection to god or the universe.Īt a time when, for the architect, beheading was a more common risk than litigation, the Golden Section offered a special type of indemnity. Thus, these simple spirals and rectangles, which served to suggest the presence of a universal order underlying the world, where thereby dubbed “golden” or “divine”. ![]() This symbolic potential arises because of the way the mean’s spiral shape resembles growth patterns observed in nature and its proportions are reminiscent of those in human bodies. There is evidence that Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek architects were able to produce this ratio using simple tools and, like their 15th-century counterparts, may have viewed it as having a larger figurative significance. When the Golden Mean is conceptualised in two dimensions it is typically presented as a regular spiral that is defined by a series of squares and arcs, each forming “Golden Rectangles”. So, for example, if the length of the starting line AB is 1.000, then the Golden Mean is approximately 1.618. In simple mathematical terms, if a line ab is divided by a point C, such that the ratio of the whole line (AB) to the longer segment (AC) is equal to the ratio of the longer segment (AC) to the smaller segment (CB), then the ratio AB : AC (and, of course, the subset ratio AC : CB) is known as the Golden Mean (φ or “phi”). In famous historical structures, such as the National Gallery in London, the use of the Golden Section gives rise to buildings that are both stable and aesthetically pleasing.
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