Proportions (Revised)

The Fenestration Committee has been revising this book since 1991. The first edition was 120 pages. The current edition is 380 pages. The Committee describes the additional 260 pages as 'corrections, clarifications, and a small number of positions that were simply wrong in earlier editions and have been addressed.'

The book covers proportion in architecture: the relationship between parts of a building, between a building and the human body, between a building and its site. The Committee's position, which has remained constant through all four editions, is that proportion is not subjective — that some buildings are wrongly proportioned and the wrongness is not a matter of opinion.

This position has generated a significant secondary literature. The Committee has read it. Their view of the secondary literature is expressed in the appendix of this edition, under the heading 'On What Others Have Said.' The heading is followed by three pages of footnotes and no main text.

The dedication of this edition reads: 'Final.' One word. Harold finds this moving and has said so in a staff pick note that he wrote and then removed from the website because he felt it was too personal.