The 6 Fundamentals of Architecture - Vitruvius (2/2)

After laying out the path for being a successful architect according to Vitruvius in our previous videos, we will go through his ideas on the fundamental principles of architecture, as pointed out in his writings. Vitruvius believed that architecture depends on six principles, each with its own weight and value on the projects. The first one is order. He considered that a building is made out of small parts or modules, where the selection of these modules will give the building order and proper form. To lay out these modules, the architect will require what is called arrangement, or the process of laying out the ground plane, which is the outlines for the surfaces of the building, the elevation, to draw pictures of the building facades in detail, and perspective, for sketching the front of the building while projecting the sides into the background. To achieve good order and arrangement, Vitruvius asked the architects to rely on careful thinking, to pay attention to all the details, and to use innovation in solving each problem. The third and fourth principles are harmony and symmetry. These two principles are connected, and each move the project towards beauty. A beautiful design should have its height, suited to its width and length. Symmetry is the relational beauty between each element of the design. The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci is inspired by this concept. In order to explain symmetry, Vitruvius used the human body analogy, where harmony and symmetry are found between the forearm, foot, palm, finger, and all the other body parts. And the same concept applies to the perfect building. The last two principles are propriety and economy. While the first four foundations addressed form, these two are for the functional aspect of the design. A beautiful project that lacks a proper functional thinking is considered a failure. Propriety is respecting the context of the project, such as opening the top of the Roman temples to have a direct access to the heavens and their gods. This principle asks the architects to understand the usage and the location of their projects. And economy is about properly managing the project and using a balance between cost and common sense, where the ordinary home will be different than that of a wealthy man or statesman. Please let us know what you think of this video, and if you have a certain topic in architecture that you want us to make a video for. Subscribe to the channel and watch our other videos if you're interested in growing your architectural knowledge, and thank you for watching.