The Language of Beauty

What do we mean when we say something is beautiful? Beauty, a relative term used to

describe something that holds a certain grade of harmony between each of its components.

It’s often used on things that are pleasant to the human eye, but really this holds a different

meaning depending on whoever wields it. This harmonic relation between parts is what we,

in the world of architecture and mathematics, call proportions… our own language of beauty.

Proportions are mathematical explanations as to how things in both nature and the

artificial world are organized. These organizations always have a concrete reason as to why

they are set that way, whether it be for safety, convenience or simply aesthetic purposes.

Like how a flower’s leaves grow in a certain pattern so that it can maximize the amount of

sunlight they receive or how a building’s doors and archways are set to be symmetrical or

structurally supportive.

In the world of architecture and construction, proportions and other mathematical

formulas are considered the language of beauty. The main reason for this is because it

creates an order that helps distribute all the components belonging to anything with

systematic precision. Mathematical formulas and analysis were created as a way to help us

understand the world that surrounds us, a clear understanding as to how or why something

is happening or has happened.

True beauty is, as stated before, a relative term. To some, it captures the essence of what they consider “pretty” or “aesthetically pleasant”, to others, it’s a way to describe something that makes them feel emotions such as happiness, pride, etc. Everyone follows a different criteria to determine what beauty truly is, in architecture that criteria is based on proportions. Perhaps many find this idea ignorant and incorrect, but even then nobody can deny that the usage of proportions has a massive impact on how we understand the world. It creates an almost seamless organization that our eyes perceive and understand with ease.