You’ve probably heard of the golden ratio before, it’s used in nearly everything from architecture to art and beauty. This term was focused on this, in fact we had to do a project specifically on the golden ratio.

This project could vary from anything to a painting or video as long as it showed your understanding of the golden ratio or Fibonacci Sequence. So in the end I chose to recreate a mini diagram of the Parthenon. I chose the Parthenon specifically because it was actually the earliest recorded use of golden ratio in architecture. During the making of this project I surrounded my ideas around the use of the golden ratio in architecture, why it was used, who it was used by, and if it was purposeful?

The golden ratio is used in architecture, nature, art and many other things. It has many other names like The Golden Spiral, The Golden Mean or The Divine Proportion. The golden ratio was originally found in Greek architecture, it was most famously used and discovered by a Greek sculptor named Phidias. The golden ratio is essentially when you divide a line into two, so that the longer part divided by the smaller part equals the whole line divided by the longer part. Take a look at the picture below to get a better idea!

During this project we also had to answer a question, how is math used in art to create patterns and appeal to our sense of asthetics? I did a little bit of research on that question and this is what I found! The golden ratio has been proven many times to be aesthetically pleasing to the human eye. Whether it be paintings, music, buildings or even faces! Many mathematicians say the reason for this, is the perfect ratio, or the golden ratio. It creates a sense of balance that ripples through your mind. One study also showed that us humans, and everything around us is balanced around one component, the horizon. The academic said, “whether you are a human being in an art gallery or an antelope on the savannah – is orientated on the horizontal”. Overall the study is trying to show the draw we have to certain geometrical patterns, the sense of aesthetic we have towards math. This math can be used in buildings and other forms of art, with the right proportions!

The Parthenon is a very famous ruin, centred in Athens, Greece. It was originally built for the Greek goddess Athena Parthenos by architects Ictinus, Callicrates and Phidias. Why choose the Parthenon to build? Well the Parthenon is the first recorded element to use the golden ratio. The golden ratios symbol also represents the 21st letter in the Greek alphabet, Phi.

So to make the Parthenon I had to first decide on all my materials. For this I thought that the best material would be clay, so I went ahead and bought tons of it. The next step was finding the measurements. The perimeter of the Parthenon was 69 x 30m, I then converted the metres into inches then divided the longest side by 15 and with that number I divided the shorter side by it. This gave me the perimeter to the reduced diagram. Once I found the blue print of the actual Parthenon in Athens, I started converting all the measurements into inches and reducing the whole thing to fit a 15 x 6” perimeter. Here’s a picture of the blueprint:

So now I had all my measurements I could start building! The first draft of this project didn’t go down to well, I didn’t think before starting so I started to build on cardboard. When I went to pick the structure up, once I was done the whole thing proceeded to crumble before my eyes.

So that day I started on a new draft! This time I glued the clay base I had made directly to a wooden base, this created a more stable structure in the end. Next I created columns, since this was an exact replica I had to make 46 of them! I then proceeded to cement them to my pre-made base. Then finally I created a roof and detailing for it. The roof was to heavy for the columns so I made the decision to create a cardboard roof so the measurements could also be more precise. Once I was finished and it was painted I was done! Here it is!

The last part was creating a poster so everybody could get a good idea of the history behind the Parthenon and Greek architecture, here it is!

Once all the building components where finished it was time to overlay the mathematical aspects to the project. I chose to do the Fibonacci Sequence instead of the Golden Ratio, both look different but have the same effect in the end. Instead of explaining all the measurements and listing the steps I’m just going to include a picture of the model below with the Fibonacci Sequence overlaying it.

Throughout the process I not only increased my mathematical skills, but also deepened my knowledge of the history behind the golden ratio. I also learned quite a lot about the Greek architectural system and history. Overall, no matter how many times I had to redo the model I still view this as a learning experience because of everything I learned!