Certain other ratios are weak and indeterminate, showing a lack of clear thinking. They are like people with no definite or cleancut ideas upon a subject they discuss. Examples in this class show ratios of two to two and one-eighth, or three to three and one-fourth, neither positively square nor frankly rectangular. They hide around the corner, as it were, waiting to be anything. [Figure 5], [Plate 5], is an example of unsatisfactory proportionate ratios of the primary mass. The blotting tablet is nearly square, while the candlestick and sconce, which should have been designed with strongly vertical masses, lack the type of definite thinking that results in a decided vertical dimension.
Disregarding the improvement in technic, [Figure 6] shows problems designed with a definite knowledge of proportion. The metal objects are refined in their dimensions, and pleasing to the eye. Tests have been made with the idea of determining what the eye considers perfectly natural and agreeable proportion. This has been found to be the ratio of two to three. Consequently, it is clear why [Figure 6] shows objects more pleasing than those in [Figure 5].
It may be felt that too much space is being given to this subject of proportion. It should be remembered, however, that the industrial arts are intimately associated with daily life and that unless proportions are pleasing to our aesthetic sense, many articles of common use shortly become intolerable.
Preliminary Thinking in Terms of Design
This preliminary portion of the designer's task has been given to thinking out the problem and drawing one rectangle. There is a tendency to start the design by pushing the pencil over the paper with a forlorn hope that a design may be evolved with little mental effort. This should be regarded as illogical and unworthy of the desired end. A rectangle of the most prominent surface of the problem, based upon the desired service of the project, and the best proportions which our knowledge of design and understanding of the limitations of construction will permit, should be the final result of the first study. From now on through the succeeding steps, the details of the problem will become more and more clear, as the technical limitations of the tools and materials governing the designer's ideas and controlling and shaping the work are better understood, until all governing factors become crystallized in the form of a working drawing or model. This is a strictly professional practice as illustrated in [Figure 7], which shows the skilled Rookwood potter developing a vase form, the definite embodiment of correct thinking in terms of the material which is constantly before him.
SUMMARY OF RULES
Rule 1a. A primary mass must be either vertical or horizontal according to the intended service, unless prohibited by technical requirements.
Rule 1b. A primary mass should have the ratio of one to three, three to four, three to five, five to eight, seven to ten, or some similar proportion difficult for the eye to readily detect and analyze.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How does the architect first plan his elevations?
2. How should the designer first think of his problem?
3. Define a horizontal primary mass.
4. Define a vertical primary mass.
5. State some desirable ratios to be used in designing the proportions of the primary mass. Explain.
Chapter III
HORIZONTAL MAJOR DIVISIONS OF THE PRIMARY MASS
In the [second chapter] we discussed the nature of the primary mass in its relation to the intended service or duty it has to perform. It was found that the demands of service usually cause the primary mass to be designed with either a strong vertical or horizontal tendency.