1. “DELIGHT”: Seeing Architecture
Beauty

2. beauty
The aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives intense pleasure to the senses
or deep satisfaction to mind or spirit, whether arising from harmony of form or color, excellence of
craft, truthfulness, originality or other.
delight
A high degree of pleasure or enjoyment.
Ching, Francis D., A Visual Dictionary of Architecture, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1997.

3. THUTMOSE, Nefertiti, from Tell el-Amarna, Egypt,
18th Dynasty, ca. 1353–1335 BCE.
Painted limestone. Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin.

4. POLYKLEITOS, Doryphoros
(Spear Bearer). Roman copy
from Pompeii,
Italy, after a bronze original of ca.
450– 440 BCE. Marble.Museo
Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
Polykleitos
sought to portray the perfect man and to
impose order on human movement.
He achieved his goals by employing
harmonic proportions and a system of
cross balance for all parts of the body.

5. IKTINOS and KALLIKRATES, Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Parthenos (looking southeast),
Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 447–438 BCE.
The architects of the Parthenon believed that perfect beauty could be achieved by using harmonic
proportions. The controlling ratio for larger and smaller parts was x = 2y + 1 (for example, a plan of
17 by 8 columns).

6. Selection of the most beautiful rectangle,
Chart, P. von Naredi-Rainer: Arhitektur und Harmonie, Dumont, Köln, 1982.
Which of the preceding rectangles is more pleasing to look at?
According to the ancient Greeks, and verified by modern psychologists, most people find the
rectangle on the left more pleasing. The Greeks used this rectangle in constructing many of their
buildings - it is called a golden rectangle.

7. AE:AB = EB: AE

8. Golden Section Spiral Construction
By using the golden section subdivision diagram a golden section spiral can be constructed.

9. Drawing of the Parthenon, Athens, and the Architectural Relationship to the Golden Section
Analysis of golden section proportions according to the golden section construction diagram.

11. Golden section Harmonic Analysis
Analysis of golden section proportions according to a diagram of a harmonic analysis of the golden
section.

13. LEON BATTISTA
ALBERTI, west facade
of Santa Maria Novella,
Florence, Italy, 1456–
1470.
Alberti’s design for the
facade of this church
features a pediment-
capped temple front and
pilaster-framed arcades.
Numerical ratios are the
basis of the proportions
of all parts of the facade.

14. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa,
ca. 1503–1505. Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris.

15. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI,
David (detail), Florence, Italy, 1501–
1504. Marble.

16. Homage to the Square: With Rays, 1959. Josef Albers

17. 49 Three-Part Variations of the Three Different Kinds of Cubes, Sol Lewitt, 1967–71, 49 units, each
24 x 8 x 8 in (60 x 20 x 20 cm), enamel on steel, Hamburg: Kunsthalle.

18. “DELIGHT”: Seeing Architecture
Mechanisms of Perception

19. “A great deal of what goes under the name of perception is,
in the wide sense of the term, recall.”
Sir Frederic Bartlett

20. Sensation and Perception
“....we have come to live in a very visually dominated culture, and it is easy to
forget that space is also perceived through the sensations of sound, smell and
even touch.
Perception is an active process through which we make sense of the world
around us. To do this of course we rely upon sensation, but we normally integrate
the experience of all our senses without conscious analysis.”
Bryan Lawson

21. St. Catherine's College, Oxford, Arne Jacobsen. Dining Hall.

24. Starry Night Vincent Van Gogh, 1889
Mary Cassatt, The Child’s Bath, 1891

27. Bottom-up processing (also called data-
based processing) is processing that is
based on incoming data. Incoming
data always provide the starting point for
perception because without incoming
data, there is no perception.
Top-down processing (also called
knowledge-based processing) refers to
processing that is based on knowledge.
Knowledge isn’t always involved in
perception but, it often is—sometimes
without our even being aware of it.

28. Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (1942.)

29. Stages of information processing in viewing art.
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (1942.)
Cognition and the Visual Arts , Robert L. Solso, A Bradford Book, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts; London,, England.

30. The Müller-Lyer illusion.

32. Gestalt Theory of Visual Perception
Perceptual Segregation: How Objects Are Separated From the Background
Rubin’s Vase (Figure-ground vase) represents two different shapes,
but both shapes can never be seen at the same time.

33. Gestalt Theory of Visual Perception
CONTINUATION
SIMILARITY
CLOSURE
anomally

34. Gestalt Theory of Visual Perception
PROXIMITY FIGURE AND GROUND
(AREA and SYMMETRY)

36. “DELIGHT”: SEEING ARCHITECTURE
Beauty
Mechanisms of Perception
Exam preparation:
Professor’s lecture and presentation
Ching, Francis D., A Visual Dictionary of Architecture, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1997., “Design”, page: 56; “Vision”, pages: 264,265,
http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm
.

37. Prepared by:
Dr. Sc. Nermina Mujezinović
architect
Literature that was used for lecture preparation / Credits & References
1. Solso, R. L., Cognition and the Visual Arts, A Bradford Book, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2. Lawson, B., The Language of Space, Architectural Press, 2001
3. Goldstein , E. B., Sensation and Perception, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning , 2010, 2007.
4. Elam, K., Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition , Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.
5. Cumming, R., Eyewitness Companions Art
6. Ciccarelli, S. K. , White , J. N., Psychology, Pearson, 2009.
7. Kleiner, F. S. Gardner’s Art Throught the Ages
8. Hargittai, I., Hargittai, M, Symmetry: a unifying concept, 1994.
http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm