WHAT IS FORM?

The visible shape or configuration of something.

English Dictionary

What is Form? Form is a way in which things can appear or exist, the way something is made, shapes such as natural shapes or manmade shapes and even the relationship between two things. It incorporates geometric dimensions and can represent the colour, weight or any other visual aspects of an item.

Form is one element of art and it is one of the most basic. Form is usually a 3D shape which has depth, height and width, such as a sphere, cylinder, cube, ect. This shows the difference between a shape and a form as one is 2D and the other is 3D, this explains that it is a visual element which has been made up of several aspects. It allows viewers to visually capture an element and understand/ analyse it.

GEOMETRIC & ORGANIC

Geometric shapes are pure forms which are shapes which have precise edges and constructed curves, architecture uses geometric forms very often as it allows for accuracy and also help with the mathematics of form.

Organic shapes are more free and flowing in contrast to geometric forms. These forms suggest a more natural emphasis, such as plants, skies and seas.

Geometry is used in Interior Design very often and is a key role for creating designs, it is very useful for getting proportions correct and also the placement of objects, a lot of designers these days use a term known as ‘Golden Ratio’, this helps describe the proportions of a certain room/ building. Golden Ratio can even help influence the colour for a room and the dimensions of a room will also be the influence for the size of which the furniture should be, this is to make sure the design of the whole room stays in proportion. Interior designers use the basic dimensions to keep focal points and make lines of symmetry.

Geometry has two great treasures: one is the Theorem of Pythagoras; the other the division of a line into extreme and mean ratio. The first we may compare to a measure of gold; the second we may name a precious jewel.

Johannes Kepler

LE CORBUSIER

Le Corbusier began looking at the scale of the human body and the average size of a human, this made him begin using the knowledge he had found to improve the appearance and function of his architecture, he based all his measurements on the information he found, the Modulor man was meant as a system of proportions, as shown below, he also used the golden ration, Fibonacci numbers and metric systems. Le Corbusier wanted to have the ceiling height of a room measured to the height where an average sized human could touch it with one are stretched upwards.

http://www.iconeye.com/component/k2/item/3815-modulor-man (2008) Modular Man – ACCESSED 5TH OCT 2015

The measurements of the human body can be used to design not just the interior of a room but also certain furniture, the designer of chairs would take into account the measurements of an average human to create a specific sized chair which would sit comfortably, this would be a mathematical ratio between the dimension of body parts, these measurements would vary depending on the client as the average size of a human can alter depending on the region of the world. All these aspects of geometry are taken into account when designing, it allows for accurate measurements and also helps with creating a space/ object which is designed for a certain sized human.

Anthropometrics is a very important thing which designers require and also the understanding of how variable it is. This helps understand the proportions, scale, dimensions, shape and all other characteristics of a human, you need to take into account like I mentioned before that these will all vary depending on the client.

After reading a few chapters from ‘Bodyspace’ by Stephen Pheasant/ Christine M. Haslegrave I began to slowly understand the effectiveness in which anthropometrics had on designing and how it linked in with geometric measurements. It has allowed me to gain further knowledge which I did not know about until now, I’ve been able to slightly understand some uses of these methods however I will need to research further into it to be able to start applying it to my designs.