Theory of Proportion: A Perennial Pathway of BeautyRegister Now!
1 Session Intensive: Saturday, February 11, 2012; 10:00am–1:00pm; 2:30pm–5:30pm
An intensive one-day seminar in lecture and demonstration format including an explanation of the Pythagorean and Platonic concept of symbolic or qualitative number, the derivation of the ancient musical octave, a discussion of the Golden Section as a geometrical “logos,” and the connection of these ideas to the numerical canons of classical architecture. The course may be taken as an introduction to these ideas or as a review for those who have some background with the subject. Participants should bring a compass and straightedge.
Instructor: Steve Bass, Architect, ICAA Fellow
Location: ICAA, 20 West 44th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY
Cost/Continuing Education Hours: $200 ($150 Members); 6 AIA/CES CEHs
This course is an invaluable follow-up to Theory of Proportion, focusing on application of traditional geometric, arithmetic and harmonic ratio methods. Each session will include a lecture accompanied by demonstrations and/or slides of reconstructions of period archetypal designs. About half of class time will be devoted to sketch problem exercises in which students will be asked to produce thumbnail sketches utilizing proportional ideas.
This intensive course is an introduction to linear perspective, which is the intellectual basis for representationist thought and spatial illusionism. Historically, the rewarding and unique pleasures of perspective’s application have been documented in oil, ink, or clay. The “delightful and noble art” of linear perspective is the flesh, heart, and soul of classic pictorial space, from placing the objects in a still life to the disposition of figures in a composition. This is done not necessarily by projecting a diagram but by being able to intuitively and plausibly place the components of a composition in space. This workshop will cover the essentials of perspective: including one–, two– and three–point perspective, providing a means for which the artist may improve independently in his or her own work.
This course engages the student in the practice of traditional architectural drafting. Many students have little or no knowledge of traditional drafting via manual and pencil technique due to the preponderance of drafting now done via machines (
(Includes site visit to Metropolitan Museum of Art)
This course will provide an overview of Molding Types and introduce Vignola’s method for drawing the Tuscan Order. The class will begin with a review of the terminology of molding types and the constituent components of the Tuscan Order. Participants will learn how to draw the Tuscan Order and review related syntax such as intercolumniation, the Pedestal and the Arch. Comparison of Vignola’s Tuscan Order will be made with other methods for drawing the Tuscan Order such as that prescribed in James Gibbs, Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture, and to other normative versions of the Tuscan Type delineated by the authors of other treatises. The class will conclude with a brief look at the use of the Tuscan type in both historic and contemporary architecture.