Selected Bibliography Architecture - Form Space and Order | Page 345

VISU AL SCALE

Of particular interest to designers is the notion of visual scale, which
refers not to the actual dimensions of things, but rather to how small
or large something appears to be in relation to its normal size or to
the size of other things in its context.
When we say something is small-scale or miniature, we usually
mean that thing appears to be smaller than its usual size. Likewise,
something that is large-scale is perceived as being larger than what is
normal or expected.

How large is this square?

We speak of urban scale when we refer to the size of a project in the
context of a city, or neighborhood scale when we judge a building
appropriate to its locale within a city, or street scale when we note
the relative sizes of elements fronting a roadway.

At the scale of a building, all elements, no matter how plain or
unimportant they may be, have a certain size. Its dimensions may
be predetermined by the manufacturer, or they may be selected by
the designer from a range of choices. Nevertheless, we perceive the
size of each element in relation to other parts or to the whole of a
composition.
Mechanical scale: the size or
proportion of something relative
to an accepted standard of
measurement.

Visual scale: the size or
proportion an element appears to
have relative to other elements of
known or assumed size.

For example, the size and proportion of windows in a building facade
are visually related to one another as well as to the spaces between
them and the overall dimensions of the facade. If the windows are all
of the same size and shape, they establish a scale relative to the size
of the facade.
If, however, one of the windows is larger than the others, it would
create another scale within the composition of the facade. The jump
in scale could indicate the size or significance of the space behind
the window, or it could alter our perception of the size of the other
windows or the overall dimensions of the facade.

330 / A R C H I TE C TU R E : F O R M , S PA C E , & O R D E R