Mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless.

Euripedes

Architecture could be said to have begun with geometry. Since earliest times, builders have imitated natural forms, such as circles. Pattern can be found everywhere in nature, and nature knows what it is doing; geometrical shapes are not only pleasing to the eye, they provide strength.

The Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria is considered to have been the first to set out the rules of geometry in 300 BCE. Later, in about 20 BCE, the ancient Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius was the first to write down the proportions for how structures should be constructed, in his De Architectura, or Ten Books on Architecture. His rules continue to influence architecture today.

For without symmetry and proportion no temple can have a regular plan

Marcus Vitruvius

Let us follow Vitruvius’s lead and seek out geometry in architecture old and new, all over the world.

Diagonals

Diamonds

Stars

Rectangles and honeycombs

Circles

Circles and ellipses

Curves

Lines and curves

Parallel lines

All shared for Patti’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #141: Geometry.