Vitruvius law

·            ‘Ten Books of Architecture’ are the core source for architects and designers to create good building.      

·              “The end is to build well. Well building hath three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight.’’ -Vitruvius.    

·            “Firmitatis utilitatis venustatis.” - “Durability, utility and beauty”

·         Durability – it should stand up robustly and remain in good condition

e.g. to survive the forces of nature; rot, decay and corrosion free), so that we don’t have to waste and replace the building materials frequently.

·         Utility – a well designed building has to be laid out efficiently so that spaces for similar activities are adjacent.

e.g.   selection of the right building materials apply for the right purpose- depending on location, availability and durability.

·         Beauty - depends on:”ordinatio, dispositio, eurythmia, decor and distributio.” Beauty is guided by the other two conditions: Durability and Utility. It has its own standard and claims its own authority.

- ordinatio (order): consistency in design to create a sense of harmony.                                                                 e.g.   proportion and types  of  column used, their entablatures(construction of temple) and pedestals(base).

- dispositio (arrangement): design incorporate both the graphic and also the intellectual sense. 

§  Graphic sense: reflection of all aspects of design (site analysis, building program, client’s need…)

§  Intellectual sense: ability to adapt the design laws & design solving

- eurythmia (proportion): arrangement of building elements: height - width - breadth( in order to look harmonize).                                                                                                                                                                           e.g. ancient temple: proportions of the columns relates to the height and weight it can bear. The entablature/entire structure has managed to support the weight above.

- décor (ornament):  appropriate elements to suits its specific intended purpose.

e.g. Doric-embodying masculine characteristics; Ionic-perceived to be feminine; Corinthian-delicate.

       Doric: used for temples for virile deities – Hercules, Athena and Mars

       Ionic: used for temples for feminine deities – Juno and Diana

       Corinthian: used for temples for delicate deities – Venus and Nymphs

*example that Vitruvius gave during the classical time

e.g. consider and understand the meaning of forms according to factors like location, client and function.

Décor also refers to how a space is being oriented according to its site surrounding - advantages and    disadvantages. 

  *contemporary example

-distributio (organizational): how the architects and designers manage/choose the building materials.                                                                                                                                           e.g. usually the issues that the architects and builders face is by choosing materials that are easily available and aesthetic, without considering the climate, site and occupants. In brief, a building in the desert needs different things than the building in the four season country.

Why does the law still relevant until today?

·           Laws to guide us in designing individual buildings, communities, cities and regions.

·           As a boundary to stop/hold the people from going over obsessed with expressive forms.

·           This over obsessed with fractal architecture brings to a nihilistic point of view where there’s a constant quest for the “new.”  

·           Remind and allow us (architects and designers) to re-examine our work, previously and in the future. We are the innovative people, not the blindly trend catcher.

How these pure greed, self aggrandizement …affect to the end of architecture?

·          Created more and more superficial buildings, redundant to have architect and designer if their mindset is as superficial as the public.

·           Leads to the endless human request for immortality, causing us to leave behind our own identity and culture (vernacular architecture) that we seldom see/ preserved nowadays.

·           Contemporary built environment is disposable (no point cleaving into fractal architecture with extravagant forms in more open space when buildings are being torn down if it has lost its function to serve its occupants).

·          These cul-de-sac developments are a waste of resources, time, man work and money.

·          Resulted futility/useless buildings in a soulless wasteland – opposed with today’s trend sustainability architecture.

·         Advancement in technologies and growing wealth has allowed us to undertake all the impossible into possible. Thus, our hubris is over taking our sense of morality and realization. W e have lost sight of the basic fact that architecture itself is not like fashion,  changing its style every season and that can be build extravagantly as we like. If we do not stop this hubris of mankind, it is believed that  we will all lost our own traditions and believed or not, we will soon be living without ‘nationality’, no sense of belonging.