What is Design?

 
Vitruvius

Latin apparently is very hard to translate, being heavily inflected into categories of descriptive states both in its noun and verb forms. So what Vitruvius is really saying ties in with some knowledge of Latin. This is just how a classical building is composed such that it can only be read by a sympathetic mind who commands some analytical knowledge of classical architectural syntax. The almost magically created impression of a certain beauty is felt unanimously even without this knowledge. That is the point, of what a public minded architecture aspires to; in an assured way, to be read maybe to be loved despite the linguistic incomprehension.

Given architects make the buildings that define urban space, their personal qualities have to be major determinants in the eventually built designs. Vitruvius considers an architect a person who is well versed in the arts yet, spaces are of the people and for the people and often successfully by the people who somehow avoided the favours laced with other dangers of the deadly professional touch. What Vitruvius would have architects do is to recognise the things of beauty, love them and put them together in a coherent assembly of great significance. There in a building, he said are things that come either in one or the other category: the signified and the signifier. The discerning of an unexpected turn in the stacking of stones and how much better are thin mortar joints with as little grouting as possible.