Geometric Constructions

Let us begin with constructions that are at once historical, practical and motivational. Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola in the mid-16 century wrote one of the more influential treatises on Renaissance architecture. In it, he describes manual ways of constructing architectural views. I highlight two constructions from his text. Each deals with an elevation of a classical column of a specific profile. The first produces a tapered shaft, the second, also called an enthasis, a profile that diminishes towards both the top and bottom. Figure 1-1 shows a plate from his treatise, Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture. Each construction yields a finite number of points on the shaft profile. These points are connected by a smooth curve to produce the desired profile.