Module, Proportion, Symmetry, Rhythm (Vision + Value Series)

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Gyorgy Kepes

George Braziller, Inc., New York, 1966, English

Nonfiction, Architecture; Nonfiction, Graphic Design; Design, General; Nonfiction, Art and Cultural History

From the Publisher. Hungarian-born design educator and theorist György Kepes (1906–2001) produced the Vision + Value book series—six anthologies of essays by prominent architects, designers, artists and scientists that elaborate on relationships between modern art, architecture, and the visualization of information and energy. This volume explores the concept of modularity as a general principle of order in the universe and as applied to architecture, the plastic arts, and music.

On 3 book lists

Stanley Abercrombie

On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List

Part of the six-volume Vision + Value series edited by Kepes, Professor of Visual Design at MIT, this volume never specifically mentions interior design, but its 13 essays (by artists, architects, a geneticist, and a mathematician) are repeatedly relevant to it. One example, the essay by art psychologist Rudolf Arnheim, begins: “One of the basic visual experiences is that of right or wrong. . . . The shape of a house, a shelf, or a picture frame may repose contentedly or show a need to improve by stretching or shrinking.”

James Biber

On James Biber’s Book List

I am new to this series, published in the 1960s and ‘70s, which, along with Module, Proportion, Symmetry, Rhythm, includes Structure in Art and Science and Arts of the Environment. They are a serious and detailed collection of design thought from people like John Cage, Rudolf Arnheim, Max Bill, Buckminster Fuller, Paolo Nervi, Fumiko Maki, Alison and Peter Smithson, and Robert Smithson. I was attracted by the cover art and titles, and the books turn out to be equally rich in content.

Niels Diffrient

On Niels Diffrient’s Book List

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