What is the Golden Rectangle and how did it find its way into the main street of your town?
The Golden Rectangle, or Golden Ratio is a rectangle shaped something like the proportions of an A4 page, or a credit card. It is a rectangle we are all very familiar with as lots of windows, especially from a long tine ago, were designed in this shape.
The Golden Ratio has lots of maths going on, it ties into Phi and the Fibonacci Sequence, so it can grow to from a big spiral which is is often found in nature.
History of the Golden Ratio
The first recorded reference to the Golden Ratio was by the Greek mathematician Euclid in around 300BC.
Interest in it was revived during the Renaissance from around 1400 by the discovery of ancient manuscripts. Renaissance artists and architects used it to help design paintings, sculptures and buildings.
What’s all the fuss about a simple rectangle?
The golden rectangle was considered to be the perfect proportion, and therefore connected to God, and given lofty names like The Golden Mean, or Divine Proportion.
So, is it the most beautiful and harmonious rectangle in the whole world?
Who knows, but the important thing is that it influenced architects and building design all across Europe and America for centuries.