A Theory of Proportion in Architecture & Design, with Steve Bass, Part I

Architect and author Steve Bass presents the initial part of his course, "A Theory of Proportion in Architecture & Design." This is the first installment of a three-part course. Part II is available here, and the third and final installment is available here.

This full three-part course provides an overview of the concept of proportion as a design tool in traditional architecture, including an explanation of the idea of symbolic or qualitative number; an introduction to Pythagorean and Platonic numerical philosophy; the nature of beauty, its relation to number, and its positive, healthful effects; the derivation of the ancient musical octave and its use as a guide to harmony; a discussion of the Golden Section, its mathematics, geometry, relation to philosophy, and particularly its role as a geometrical “logos”; and the connection of all these ideas to the numerical-geometrical canons of classical architecture.

These ideas are applied to historical archetypes, such as the four column portico, through demonstrations using arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic ratio methods of application to achieve harmonic and uplifting design outcomes. The course may be taken as an introduction to these ideas or as a review for those who have some background with the subject.

Viewers are encouraged to download the accompanying booklet below and actually draw the constructions demonstrated in the video.

Resources

Course Booklet

In This Video

Click on the chapter markers in the video above to jump to each section. The chapter topics are listed here for reference.

Use the label number of each exercise to locate it in the course booklet or the commentary. Not all exercises in the booklet are covered in this video.

[00:20] Introduction

[12:02] Class Handout

[12:49] What is Proportion?

[17:37] Axiom 1

[18:27] Axiom 2

[22:20] Axiom 3

[24:18] Rational Ratios

[31:00] Figure 1: A Geometrical Creation Story

[01:06:01] Figure 2: The Musical Octave

[01:37:27] Conclusion of Session 1

Sponsors

The ICAA would like to thank our Lead Sponsor for Continuing Education courses, Uberto Construction.

Tags: video course, world of classicism