Nobody does it better…

Nature as architect – nobody does it better…

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Golden Ratio

My boss, Michael Lewallen, the principal architect here, has just begun a new project that he’s completely jazzed about. It’s to be built on a piece of property along the Hood River in The Upper Valley near Parkdale, OR. After riding his bike all around the area, and walking the land with camera in hand, the topography suggested the design. The house Michael began drawing over the last few days is based on the idea of the Golden Section. As he showed his sketches and described the concept, I nodded my head and mumbled appropriate encouragements like, “Ah” and “mmm” and “uh-huh, uh-huh, gotcha.” I had no idea what he was talking about. So I googled “golden section” and discovered…

In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887.^[1]

This is where my eyes began rolling up into my head, but the golden ratio, aka golden section or divine proportion, can be found throughout nature (in the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants, or the growth pattern of seeds in the head of a sunflower, for example), music (Bartok or Debussy perhaps), human proportion and perception of beauty, and, (you knew I was going here) architecture. The Parthenon, the Great Mosque of Kairouan, the work of architects Le Corbusier and Mario Botta.

I don’t know. I guess I just think that’s pretty cool. Stay tuned for pix…

 

 

Tenzen

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