On The Design Thought In The Ten Books On Architecture

Until now, the Ten Books on Architecture is the unique theoretical literature on architecture in ancient Greece and Rome with intact preservation. It consists of ten volumes, systematically summarizing practical experience in architecture in Greece and Rome. It discusses the nature and usage of various architectural materials, the constructing principle and methods, implementing tools and equipments, water-supply technology and other issues related with architecture, such as positioning, sunshine as well as wind direction. It is the first time that this book puts forwards three principles in architecture, namely "firmness, utility and beauty", providing theoretical basis for European architecture.This paper studies the design vision of Ten Books on Architecture. Proceeding from historical literature, this paper explores the temporal design spirit embodied in the books and analyzes many issues, including design vision and source of ideas related with architecture through the detailed interpretation of the text. In the past, the study on design vision just covers superficial features, and it's not systematic. Hence, this paper conducts some explorations on the design vision of Ten Books on Architecture.The study can be summarized as "one center, three directions and four areas". The so-called "one center" refers to the theme of design, "three directions" refer to the theoretical embodiment of "firmness, utility and beauty", "four areas" stand for design material, structure design, design of decoration style and design vision of color.This paper consists of six chapters.Chapter one discusses the author of Ten Books on Architecture, and the background, goal, objects, methods and general orientation of the books. This chapter focuses on the understanding of the general orientation of Ten Books on Architecture. Finally, it has illustrated the cultural characteristics of architecture in the Ten Books on Architecture. Starting from "one center" proposed in this paper, Chapter 2-4 mainly explores the design philosophy and related relations in "three directions", which are based on the understanding of materials, structure and decoration parts in Ten Books on Architecture. And this paper furthers its exploration in "four areas". For instance, the study on naturalism in material selection, the cause of selecting stones in certain kind of architecture as well as the usage of stones, the principles of usefulness and beauty, the design vision of "human and nature" in decoration and idea source of color usage in architecture. The focus lies in the profound significance and impact of color usage on today's architectural activities in human society. It's also the significance of author's study. Through the research on many ancient literatures, the wonder of design vision of Ten Books on Architecture is tried to unveil.Chapter 5 is summary and prospect. It's the summary of the paper, analyzing the principles of design vision in Ten Books on Architecture from four areas on the basis of exploration above. The principles are: perfect combination of usefulness and aesthetics, combination of inner beauty and external form, outstanding philosophy of "beauty lies in harmony", and the value of "measurement of god".