DESIGN THEORY -I

Vitruvius on Architecture
 Vitruvius

• Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80–70 BC, died after c. 15 BC),

• Commonly known as Vitruvius,
• A Roman author, architect, civil engineer and military
engineer during the 1st century BC
• Known for his multi-volume work entitled De architectura
• Vitruvius is the author of De architectura, known
today as The Ten Books on Architecture

• Text influenced deeply - the Early Renaissance

artists, thinkers, and architects,

• Among them
o Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472),
o Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), and
o Michelangelo (1475–1564).
• Vitruvius is famous for asserting in his book De architectura
that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of
o firmitas,
o utilitas,
o venustas
that is, it must be solid, useful, beautiful.

• These are sometimes termed the Vitruvian virtues or the

Vitruvian Triad.
• According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation (copy) of
nature.

• As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed

housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter
against the elements.
• When perfecting this art of building, the Greeks
invented the architectural orders: Doric, Ionic and
Corinthian.

• It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in

understanding the proportions of the greatest work
of art: the human body.

• This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Man, as

drawn later by Leonardo da Vinci: the human body
inscribed in the circle and the square.
 Vitruvius
• His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and the
human body led to the famous Renaissance drawing by Da
Vinci of Vitruvian Man.

"Vitruvian Man", illustration in

the edition of De architectura by
Vitruvius; illustrated edition by
Cesare Cesariano (1521)
Vitruvian Man by Leonardo
da Vinci, an illustration of
the human body inscribed
in the circle and the square
derived from a passage
about geometry and
human proportions in
Vitruvius' writings
BOOK III
CHAPTER I
• ON SYMMETRY: IN TEMPLES AND IN THE HUMAN BODY

3. In the human body the central point is naturally the

navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his
hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses
centred at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two
hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle.
If we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to
the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the
outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the
same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces
which are perfectly square.
Book I
CHAPTER II
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURE
1. Architecture depends on
• Order,
• Arrangement,
• Eurythmy,
• Symmetry,
• Propriety, and
• Economy
Order (a state in which everything is in its correct or
appropriate place)

• Order gives due measure to the members of a work

considered separately, and symmetrical agreement
to the proportions of the whole.

• It is an adjustment according to quantity .

Arrangement

• Arrangement includes the putting of things in

their proper places and the elegance of effect
which is due to adjustments appropriate to the
character of the work.

• Its forms of expression are : ground plan,

elevation, and perspective.
Eurythmy

• Eurythmy is beauty and fitness in the adjustments

of the members.

• This is found when the members of a work are of

a height suited to their breadth, of a breadth
suited to their length, and, in a word, when they
all correspond symmetrically.
Symmetry

• Symmetry is a proper agreement

between the members of the work
itself, and relation between the
different parts and the whole scheme.

• Thus in the human body there is a

kind of symmetrical harmony
between forearm, foot, palm, finger,
and other small parts; and so it is with
perfect buildings.

• In the case of temples, symmetry may

be calculated from the thickness of a
column, from a triglyph.
Propriety (the condition of being right, appropriate,
or fitting)

• Propriety is that perfection of style which comes

when a work is authoritatively constructed on
approved principles.

• It arises from prescription, from usage, or from

nature.
Economy

• Economy denotes the proper management of

materials and of site, as well as a thrifty balancing
of cost and common sense in the construction of
works.

• This will be observed if, in the first place, the

architect does not demand things which cannot
be found or made ready without great expense.