Annotated Artifacts
Bangs, Herbert. The Return of Sacred Architecture: the Golden Ratio and the End of Modernism. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2007. Print.
Using the foreword and chapter titles as my current only source of opinion on this book, I have to say that it reminds me of that one professor everyone's heard of who's eccentric in his personality and teaching, yet everyone loves him and his class, as well as learning a ton. This book, as the title suggests, is about the ratios and patterns used in old architecture that have fallen out of modern use, causing current architecture to not be as appealing. Although there is the vague sense of philosophy in the chapter titles, they do seem to relate well to my thesis in the mathematical ratios aspect. I am hoping that this book correlates as much as it seems from the little I've read so far to my thesis.
Ch4wl. "BBC - Design Rules - 1 of 6 - Space and Planning." Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. Feb 9 2014.
This is a series of videos from BBC about interior design and why Cretan interior design choices work. While it can be a tad bit repetitive, it does contain really good illustrations of their points in their "design lab," a blank white room they constructed in their studio where they reproduce some of the tips they say. This series is very helpful because it tries to focus less on the subjective interior decorating and more on scientific reasons some interior design is more successful than others. Although I have only watched the first of six videos, I do foresee this being a useful source, as it does seem to be credible and does a good job explaining the basics of the science behind the principles they are stating.
Cregan, Lisa. House Beautiful Style 101: 400 Designer Secrets to a Beautiful Home. New York, NY: Hearst Books, 2011. Print.
Cregan's book starts off with a "pop quiz" that ends in telling you which of 5 styles you tend towards, either glam, new ruralist, traditional with a twist, modernist, or accessorator. Then it splits into 5 sections, each one of the styles, and walks you through how the living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathrooms would look in that style. Tossed in are snippets of advice from interior decorators in each style, as well as pages where the decorators say their favorite shade of white or name a specific floral wallpaper they like, for example. As far as decorating books go, this one is fairly good.
This source does not do much in terms of raw information for my thesis, but I feel that it could be helpful in looking at how the golden ratios are used in each decorating style.
Interior Design Horizons. Interiordesignhorizons.com. Blog. Tumblr. Web. Nov. 9 2014.
This blog has pictures of various design styles, and provides explanations of why those styles work. This is a useful source, as it does accompany it's pictures with explanations, making it more useful than most other interior design blogs. This source is more helpful to my project than it is to my thesis, but it is still useful to my thesis as a source of pictures to analyze.
Livio, Mario. The Golden Ratio: the Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number. New York: Broadway Books, 2002. Print.
Livio starts off his book with a very thorough history of phi, which mainly involves situations that have phi present but no evidence that the creator was aware of phi. This continues on, until finially we are introduced to Leonardo Da Vinci and Luca Pacioli. From there, Livio’s book becomes a life story of phi and its many varied forms, including the 5 platonic solids.
This book has been one of my strongest sources and is where a large part of my thesis is based on. That being said, it does not mention even once interior design (or modern architecture), so in a way it supports my thesis through that.
Norman, Donald A. Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books, 2004. Print.
This book is a very interesting read. Norman discusses functionality versus beauty in everyday objects, using specific examples including his teapot collection. Although I have only read the first chapter and a half, this book does not seem to relate to my thesis that much. It speaks towards objects, not rooms, and from the little I've read so far seems to speak more to the psychological side instead of the mathematical side of my thesis. Although this book is low down on my reading priorities list, it is still on it.
"Phi 1.618: The Golden Number." Phi 1.618 The Golden Number RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014. <http://www.goldennumber.net/>.
This website, while somewhat poorly organized, is very helpful. Not only does it have article-like things on many instances of phi, but it also lead me to the discovery of phimatrix, a very useful software. It does not go deeply into most topics, but is a good source for seeing what’s out there or getting a general knowledge. It has been helpful, and I would suggest it.
Phillips, Dan. "Creative Houses from ReClaimed Stuff." TED Talks, Nov. 2010. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
This TED Talk starts off with showing pictures of houses Dan Phillips has built, with him commenting on some of the reclaimed materials in the house. Then Phillips launches into a sometimes humorous discussion of why there is so much waste in traditional house building, touching on points such as perfection, patterns, continuity, and organic textures. This source is somewhat useful to me, as a large portion of the points Phillips discusses can also be applied to interior design. This source adds to the pattern part of my thesis, and has affected how I think about perfect versus organic patterns. Overall, it is a good place to turn while thinking about how to use found materials in interior design, but does not have much to say regarding my thesis topic.
Posamentier, Alfred S., and Ingmar Lehmann. The Glorious Golden Ratio. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2011. Print.
This book seems to be almost a textbook on the golden ratio. Just a page into the first chapter and there are already mathematical equations speaking to the derivation of the golden ratio. This book also talks about the relationship between the golden ratio and principles such as the Fibonacci numbers and the pythagorean theorem, as well as it's appearances in architecture and art. Although I have only read the introduction and chapter titles, this book seems like it will provide a very strong basis for building a knowledge of the ratios I will be studying in relation to interior design. This book has just soared to the top of my priority reading list.
Stewart, Ian. Why Beauty is Truth: a History of Symmetry. New York: Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2007. Print.
Although I have only read a small part of the book, I am already a fan of Stewart's writing style. In this book, he narrates the history and present of various numbers notable for them being exceptions to various rules, as well as why symmetry seems to be so important in mathematics. This book, as of where I am currently in my reading, does not speak to my thesis, but from the introduction it seems like in later chapters it will. It seems like it will be a useful source, as it speaks about different numbers than most of the other books I have, as well as talking about them from a different perspective. Hopefully this book will be able to add new ratios to my growing list, as well as new reasons for certain numbers to deserve to be so important in interior design and the universe as a whole.
Using the foreword and chapter titles as my current only source of opinion on this book, I have to say that it reminds me of that one professor everyone's heard of who's eccentric in his personality and teaching, yet everyone loves him and his class, as well as learning a ton. This book, as the title suggests, is about the ratios and patterns used in old architecture that have fallen out of modern use, causing current architecture to not be as appealing. Although there is the vague sense of philosophy in the chapter titles, they do seem to relate well to my thesis in the mathematical ratios aspect. I am hoping that this book correlates as much as it seems from the little I've read so far to my thesis.
Ch4wl. "BBC - Design Rules - 1 of 6 - Space and Planning." Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. Feb 9 2014.
This is a series of videos from BBC about interior design and why Cretan interior design choices work. While it can be a tad bit repetitive, it does contain really good illustrations of their points in their "design lab," a blank white room they constructed in their studio where they reproduce some of the tips they say. This series is very helpful because it tries to focus less on the subjective interior decorating and more on scientific reasons some interior design is more successful than others. Although I have only watched the first of six videos, I do foresee this being a useful source, as it does seem to be credible and does a good job explaining the basics of the science behind the principles they are stating.
Cregan, Lisa. House Beautiful Style 101: 400 Designer Secrets to a Beautiful Home. New York, NY: Hearst Books, 2011. Print.
Cregan's book starts off with a "pop quiz" that ends in telling you which of 5 styles you tend towards, either glam, new ruralist, traditional with a twist, modernist, or accessorator. Then it splits into 5 sections, each one of the styles, and walks you through how the living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathrooms would look in that style. Tossed in are snippets of advice from interior decorators in each style, as well as pages where the decorators say their favorite shade of white or name a specific floral wallpaper they like, for example. As far as decorating books go, this one is fairly good.
This source does not do much in terms of raw information for my thesis, but I feel that it could be helpful in looking at how the golden ratios are used in each decorating style.
Interior Design Horizons. Interiordesignhorizons.com. Blog. Tumblr. Web. Nov. 9 2014.
This blog has pictures of various design styles, and provides explanations of why those styles work. This is a useful source, as it does accompany it's pictures with explanations, making it more useful than most other interior design blogs. This source is more helpful to my project than it is to my thesis, but it is still useful to my thesis as a source of pictures to analyze.
Livio, Mario. The Golden Ratio: the Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number. New York: Broadway Books, 2002. Print.
Livio starts off his book with a very thorough history of phi, which mainly involves situations that have phi present but no evidence that the creator was aware of phi. This continues on, until finially we are introduced to Leonardo Da Vinci and Luca Pacioli. From there, Livio’s book becomes a life story of phi and its many varied forms, including the 5 platonic solids.
This book has been one of my strongest sources and is where a large part of my thesis is based on. That being said, it does not mention even once interior design (or modern architecture), so in a way it supports my thesis through that.
Norman, Donald A. Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books, 2004. Print.
This book is a very interesting read. Norman discusses functionality versus beauty in everyday objects, using specific examples including his teapot collection. Although I have only read the first chapter and a half, this book does not seem to relate to my thesis that much. It speaks towards objects, not rooms, and from the little I've read so far seems to speak more to the psychological side instead of the mathematical side of my thesis. Although this book is low down on my reading priorities list, it is still on it.
"Phi 1.618: The Golden Number." Phi 1.618 The Golden Number RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014. <http://www.goldennumber.net/>.
This website, while somewhat poorly organized, is very helpful. Not only does it have article-like things on many instances of phi, but it also lead me to the discovery of phimatrix, a very useful software. It does not go deeply into most topics, but is a good source for seeing what’s out there or getting a general knowledge. It has been helpful, and I would suggest it.
Phillips, Dan. "Creative Houses from ReClaimed Stuff." TED Talks, Nov. 2010. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
This TED Talk starts off with showing pictures of houses Dan Phillips has built, with him commenting on some of the reclaimed materials in the house. Then Phillips launches into a sometimes humorous discussion of why there is so much waste in traditional house building, touching on points such as perfection, patterns, continuity, and organic textures. This source is somewhat useful to me, as a large portion of the points Phillips discusses can also be applied to interior design. This source adds to the pattern part of my thesis, and has affected how I think about perfect versus organic patterns. Overall, it is a good place to turn while thinking about how to use found materials in interior design, but does not have much to say regarding my thesis topic.
Posamentier, Alfred S., and Ingmar Lehmann. The Glorious Golden Ratio. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2011. Print.
This book seems to be almost a textbook on the golden ratio. Just a page into the first chapter and there are already mathematical equations speaking to the derivation of the golden ratio. This book also talks about the relationship between the golden ratio and principles such as the Fibonacci numbers and the pythagorean theorem, as well as it's appearances in architecture and art. Although I have only read the introduction and chapter titles, this book seems like it will provide a very strong basis for building a knowledge of the ratios I will be studying in relation to interior design. This book has just soared to the top of my priority reading list.
Stewart, Ian. Why Beauty is Truth: a History of Symmetry. New York: Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2007. Print.
Although I have only read a small part of the book, I am already a fan of Stewart's writing style. In this book, he narrates the history and present of various numbers notable for them being exceptions to various rules, as well as why symmetry seems to be so important in mathematics. This book, as of where I am currently in my reading, does not speak to my thesis, but from the introduction it seems like in later chapters it will. It seems like it will be a useful source, as it speaks about different numbers than most of the other books I have, as well as talking about them from a different perspective. Hopefully this book will be able to add new ratios to my growing list, as well as new reasons for certain numbers to deserve to be so important in interior design and the universe as a whole.