PLAZA DE LA VIRREINA

Site: PLAZA DE LA VIRREINA, Village of Gracia

Assignment: PROPORTIONS, RATIOS, GEOMETRIES

"For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is just the same; the head from the chin to the crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the under side of the nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a third, comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body; of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one fourth."
excerpt from the Ten Books of Architecture by Vitruvius

Begin by drawing a diagramatic plan AND section OR axon of the plaza. In your sketch, indicate the location of the church. Please render accurately the width and height of the spatial volume of the plaza and its opening and passages.

Sketch, in more detail, the facade of the church. Your drawing should reveal underlying proportional systems and or geometries. Using your overall proportions as the fundamental element of measurement, locate the fenestartions, ornamentation and architectural elements and details.

pro·por·tion (pr -pôr sh n, -p r -)
n.

1. A part considered in relation to the whole.
2. A relationship between things or parts of things with respect to comparative magnitude, quantity, or degree:.
3. A relationship between quantities such that if one varies then another varies in a manner dependent on the first: 4. Agreeable or harmonious relation of parts within a whole; balance or symmetry.