The Yule Blog

by Craig Claus

I was recently reading through the AIBD (American Institute of Building Design) publication Design Lines and came across an article entitled “The Well-Designed House” by Varina Wooster. In the article she looks at the essential principles of architecture that were set forth by the roman architect, Vitruvius, as being commodity, firmness, and delight. It made me think of my own definition of value as applied to house design as being a combination of efficiency, durability, and quality.

The 1st century BC writer, architect, and engineer, Marcus Vitruvius, is famous for his book De architectura, in which he asserts that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas. These three qualities have been commonly translated as commodity, firmness, and delight. They have also been interpreted as strong or durable, useful, and beautiful. More wordy descriptions of the three elements are: appropriate spatial accommodation, structural stability, and attractive appearance.

Whatever its modern-day verbiage, it’s nice to know that after two thousand years we can still arrive at a similar quantification of the important features and qualities that describe a “Well-Designed” building. As builders, code councils, and material manufacturers race to see who can be the most “green”, let’s not abandon the principles that have helped to guide good architecture for, well, at least 2,000 years. Let’s continue to use a systems solution that incorporates a responsible approach to sourcing, using, and disposing of materials, that designs a structure that is site-specific, and incorporates new or long-known energy-efficient technologies in a way that makes both social and economic sense, as well as giving a little credence to our friend Vitruvius.