Mathematics & Good Design
If you've followed me for a while, you'll know that my academic journey and carrer up until starting Nadia Sorensen Interior Design wasn't exactly centred around design. In fact, it was very much centred around what most of us think of as the opposite of design - mathematics. In school, we learned about the ‘left brain’ vs. the ‘right brain’, and we were told that we would have one predominant side. So, as a big fan of mathematics, I always assumed I was left-brain-centric in my career and the right-brain was for the weekend and evening-hobbies.
But as I got older, I realised that the connection between the two ‘brain parts' (yes, I know they're not actually two seperate brain parts), were much stronger than I realised when first introduced to the idea in school. In fact, I use maths constantly in my design. Obviously, I measure rooms, develop floorplans and all those things that naturally uses math. But you may be surprised to know, that mathematics is a core principle of design. On principal, in particular, comes to mind: the Golden Ratio.
Photo of me with my trusted companion: my laser measurer
The Golden Ratio - The Fibonnaci Sequence
With the fear of getting a little too nerdy, the golden ratio is derived from the Fibonnaci sequence and it's one of those fascinating mathematical principles that surrounds us in everyday life, without most of us noticing it. For the fellow left-brainers in the room, you'll know the golden ratio as 1.618 (or 0.618). For the right-brainers in the room (don't worry, I got you!), the golden ration explains an interesting proportional relationship between two segments’ sizes. Why is it interesting, you might ask? Well, because this proportional relationship is seen, not just in man-made designs, but in nature too. Below are a few examples to help you visualise what I'm referring to.
Photo from medium.com
How You See It In (Danish) Design
No doubt that the golden ratio appears in nature, but interestingly it keeps popping up in our aestethic preferences too. Now, it's important to point out that studies have not been able to tell us, whether this preference for the golden ratio is inherently within us, or whether we simply have used it so much in design that we're used to seeing it and therefore expect to see it in good design. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that if you like Danish design, you'll appreciate the golden ratio aestethics.
Many Danish design classics (which I've written previous blog posts about) follow the same proportional relationship. The classic Danish dining chairs, for example, often follow the rule perfectly, as you'll find the height of the chair, from bottom of the leg to the top of its backrest, is 1.618 to the width of its base. Similarly, you'll find room designs, where the golden ratio is applied - especially when it comes to colour choices.
Colour Schemes
One of the first chapters in any interior design textbook (and certainly in mine too) was how to balance colour combinations. The textbooks always advice 60-30-10, with 60 percent of a room being in the ‘dominant' colour, 30 percent in the seconday colour and splashes of a third tone (10 percent) spread around the room. Now, for full transparency, I don't follow this rule to a T - at least not consciously, but looking back over my design choices, I definitely see patterns that are very similar to this idea. Below is one of my favourite sitting nooks from a Mosman client's home and, while I never consciously think of the golden ratio when I design, I can see that it subconsciously appear in my work from time to time.
Reading nook in Mosman project
Does this mean that all you need for good design is the golden ratio, you might ask? And, unfortunately, the answer is no. There's of course much more to good design than simply following 1 basic rule - Good design is measured, layered and complex, all at the same time. But to me, I LOVE it when my two passions align in a little dance of their own; the dance of design mathematics.
