From Richard Hilken
Marcus Chown dismissed the aesthetic qualities of phi too quickly (21/28 December 2002, p 55). While it is clear that a particular shape may not always please, one quality does seem to be intrinsically recognisable, in the visual arts as well as in music, namely ratios.
The great advantage that phi offers us, architects especially, is the facility to repeat ratios that are neither boring nor increase too rapidly. Le Corbusier certainly made good use of two specific sets of dimensions based on the Fibonacci series. English Georgian architects knew it well. Measure any of their standard terraces – the dimensions of the windows, the spaces between, the shape of the whole – and you will find phi everywhere.
You will rarely find it in any modern building, though. Modern standardisation does not bother with proportion.
Exeter, Devon, UK
