The Roman architect and engineer, Vitruvius, in his comprehensive treatise, “de architectura” (On Architecture), described three foundational principles of architectural design: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas, (strength, utility, and beauty). Often referred to as, The Vitruvian Triad or the three Vitruvian virtues, they remain to this day the starting point for design and creative work across a vast number of disciplines and industries.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was born into an affluent and influential Roman family in the 1st century BCE. He served as an engineer in Caesar's army, where he specialized in the design and construction of field artillery, war machines and siege weapons such as the scorpio and the ballista, sometimes called the bolt thrower, an ancient missile weapon that launched either bolts or stones at a distant target.
In 46 BC, Vitruvius served the army at the Battle of Zan, and fought at the Second Punic War in Zama, Northern Africa. He travelled widely with the army throughout the Empire and likely served with Julius Caesar's chief engineer, Lucius Cornelius Balbus.
After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, Vitruvius joined the army of Octavian (Emperor Augustus), as a senior military engineer and at some point in his service became involved in the development and construction of the Roman aqueduct system. The only known record of a building designed by Vitruvius is that of a basilica, completed in 19 BC near Fanum Fortunae, the modern town of Fano, Italy.
It was near the end of his life that Vitruvius began to write the ten volume comprehensive compilation, “de architectura”, which he graciously dedicated to Emperor Augustus.
“So with Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius, and Gnaeus Cornelius, I was ready to supply and repair ballistae, scorpiones, and other artillery, and I have received rewards for good service with them. After your first bestowal of these upon me, you continued to renew them on the recommendation of your sister. Owing to this favour I need have no fear of want to the end of my life, and being thus laid under obligation I began to write this work for you, because I saw that you have built and are now building extensively, and that in future also you will take care that our public and private buildings shall be worthy to go down to posterity by the side of your splendid achievements. I have drawn up definite rules to enable you, by observing them, to have personal knowledge of the quality both of existing buildings and those which are yet to be constructed.”
Through the centuries, the three Vitruvian principles, strength, utility, and beauty, have been respected and acknowledged by the greatest architects, artists and designers. Leonardo da Vinci enshrined the principles in his anatomical drawing of the human form, Vitruvian Man, where he inscribes the human body within a circle and a square (the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order).
Vitruvian Man (c. 1492) Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice. Leonardo da Vinci
Vitruvius’ 10 volumes are a fundamental set of building design standards drawn from his own experience as an architect as well as observations on the work of other prominent builders of his time, including Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the Roman general, statesman, and architect who was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to the emperor, Augustus. The Emperor/Engineer Hadrian dedicated the rebuilt Pantheon in Rome with the inscription: "Marcus Agrippa, the son of Lucius, three times consul, built this”, in honor of Agrippa, centuries after the original buildings construction.
The standards contained within de architectura convey the basic logic of geometry and order of design principles carried over from the ancient Greek classical orders.
“Geometry is of much assistance in architecture, and in particular it teaches us the use of the rule and compasses, by which especially we acquire readiness in making plans for buildings in their grounds, and rightly apply the square, the level, and the plummet. By means of optics, again, the light in buildings can be drawn from fixed quarters of the sky. It is true that it is by arithmetic that the cost of buildings are calculated and measurements are computed, but difficult questions involving symmetry are solved by means of geometrical theories and methods.”
While Vitruvius lays out logical, geometric building standards, he also shows a reverence towards astronomy and the mystic. He asserts the necessity of the designer to be well rounded in his education to better understand the usefulness of the buildings they conceive.
“Let him be educated, skilful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens.”
The principles of The Vitruvian Triad are still as applicable in the design and construction of a good building in the modern world as they were two thousand years ago in the ancient world.
In 1948, the Swiss-French architect, artist, designer Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, developed his own take on Vitruvian Man in his influential publication titled Modular, followed by Modular 2 (1953). The fundamental “module” of the Modular is the figure of a six-foot man segmented into design proportions adhering to the “The Golden Section / Golden Ratio,” a ratio defined by the number Phi.
These proportions can be scaled up or down to infinity using a Fibonacci progression. Le Corbusier’s Modular formula was devised to reconcile the geometry of the human form, architecture and beauty into a readily applied modular system of design that could be applied to every aspect of a buildings design and use.
In devising this “Modulor Man“ system, Corbusier was following in the footsteps of Pythagoras, Vitruvius and Leonardo Da Vinci in an ancient quest to understand and define the mathematical architecture of the universe. Physicist Albert Einstein said of the system: “It’s a tool that makes the good easy and the bad difficult.”
A modern take on the 2000 year old Vitruvian principles of firmitas, utilitas, and venustas, (strength, utility, and beauty). The standard in harmonizing the relationship between human beings, buildings and their surroundings.
