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The foursquare gospel of architecture
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The appeal of architectural symmetry, I think, is one good argument for intelligent design and the existence of some kind of natural aesthetic law.
Symmetros is a Greek word, and ancient Greek architecture used symmetry as a basic organizing principle. As did Roman, Roman-esque, and Renaissance. Indeed, it is hard to think of any architectural tradition, Western or non-Western, that does not include symmetry. Symmetry is something that Islamic mosques, Chinese pagodas, Hindu temples, Shinto shrines, and Gothic cathedrals have in common.
Of course, much modern architecture eschews symmetry for something far more engage: asymmetry! Yet, we still beg to see what we love.
Why is architectural symmetry so satisfying? As Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing demonstrated, it reflects the human body, which has a right side and a left, a back and a front, the navel in the very center. Du Sautoy writes that the human mind seems constantly drawn to anything that embodies some aspect of symmetry. He observes that “[a]rtwork, architecture and music from ancient times to the present day play on the idea of things which mirror each other in interesting ways.” When we walk around a Baroque church, we experience many changing views, but when we walk down the main aisle-the line along which the mirror images of the left and right sides meet-we know that we are in a special relationship to our surroundings. And when we stand below the dome of the crossing, at the confluence of four symmetries, we know we have arrived.
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Soul searching
Any straying from the Golden Mean makes us nervous, but there is great creativity within it. Humankind seeks order in the chaos.
Francis Schaeffer in his book “The God Who is There” has something to say about why some like seeing symmetry and order in works of art and others prefer asymmetry. The gist of it has to do with being created in the likeness of God. Those who are attracted to truth, beauty an goodness are attracted to orderly and realistic art because it represents what God delights in. When we as individuals look at it we share in what it represents, so there is communication going on. But someone who prefers asymmetry has “succeeded in making your own world on your canvas, and in this sense you have become god. But at the same time you have lost contact with the person who views your painting.”
#2 - I don’t agree with this at all. Asymmetry doesn’t necessarily mean disorderly. There is much order in asymmetrical art, but the order comes from balance, not symmetry. I prefer asymmetry, especially in interior design (my line of work), but I have had clients who cannot stand it. For those types of people symmetrical layouts offer the most soothing rooms and decor.
Maybe I stretched the point too far regarding Schaeffer. His comment was about abstract art — not asymmetrical art. But then again, according to the dictionary, asymmetry by definition is being out of balance, where TL’s designs probably reintroduce balance using other techniques.
I have seen articles claiming scientific study validation for the assertion that the more symetrical a face, the higher people rank it for attractiveness - apparently that preference cuts across cultural/ethnic lines.
Adios and TL,
Move to the head of the class. Symmetry is boring, limiting and for the weak minded. The other much more important pillars designers draw on like the golden mean of proportion, light, dark, mass, void, curves vs straight lines and the hundreds of other design methodologies can be tailored to fit the asymmetrical and complex reality of human life and mind as well as nature itself.
Rejection of the symmetrical by moat all talented designers, other than the odd ancient throwbacks to a bygone dead and boring era is what has made our visual man made world unlimitingly, varied and wonderful - the spice of life.
Please show me symmetry in nature, in God’s creation. I don’t find it, at least not this definition:”exact reflection of form on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane”. In the manufacturing world, robotics, software programming, mathematics, yes, we have an attempt at symmetry. In creation we find reflections and relations. Look into the pond on a sunny day. You see the nearby trees, blue sky and even the sun so bold and burning bright, all there in the water, but now look above and beyond to the real trees and the real sun. Is it the same? Is is the same even when the wind has ceased and the water is as still as a mirror? Any plein air painter will tell you no, it is two different worlds, both beautiful, similar in a way and to emphasize that similarity we may even attempt to paint them the same, but we know they are as different as the candle is to the sun.
Representing symmetry and learning from the reflections and relationships we find in God’s creation is wonderful but there is so much more. Now we look through a glass darkly but then ….
artscounterpoint.com