Architect's designs must refer to the unquestionable perfection of the body's symmetry and proportions. If a building is to create a sense of eurythmia, it is essential that it mirrors these natural laws of harmony and beauty
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that architectural designs should reflect the natural beauty and symmetry found in the human body.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio highlights the intrinsic connection between architecture and the principles of natural harmony. He asserts that for a building to embody beauty and a sense of balanced proportion, its design must echo the symmetrical qualities of the human body, thereby achieving a sense of eurythmia, or harmonious flow. This perspective underscores the importance of proportion and beauty in both natural and constructed forms.
In practice
In a presentation about architectural principles, one could cite this quote to emphasize the importance of design in connecting with human aesthetics.
Architects should be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens
Now architecture consists of order, which in Greek is called taxis ... Order is the balanced adjustment of the details of the work separately, and, as to the whole, the arrangement of the proportion with a view to a symmetrical result.
Beauty is produced by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other.
I am moreover inclined to be concise when I reflect on the constant occupation of the citizens in public and private affairs, so that in their few leisure moments they may read and understand as much as possible.
I, therefore, O Caesar, do not publish this work, merely prefixing my name to a treatise which of right belongs to others, nor think of acquiring reputation by finding fault with the works of any one.
But I, Caesar, have not sought to amass wealth by the practice of my art, having been rather contented with a small fortune and reputation, than desirous of abundance accompanied by a want of reputation.
When asked how she knows when her writing is where she wants it to be: "I know when it's the best I can do. It may not be the best there is. Another writer may do it much better. But I know when it's the best I can do. I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that."
Every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world.
Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle.
All architecture has a public nature, I believe, so I would like to make a public space.
I certainly enjoy Usher, Beyonce, Chris Brown, and there is Fantasia; these people will be around a while. They've got it. They've got the 'it' factor.
The main thing is to write for the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lust that imagines its haven like your hands at night dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast. You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous. Take off from here.
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