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Volume 36, Number 4, pages 327-354 (2025)
https://doi.org/10.26830/symmetry_2025_4_327
TRACING THE EVOLUTION OF SYMMETRY: FROM CLASSICAL SYMMETRICAL DESIGN TO MODERN SYMMETRICAL URBANISM
Ataollah Tofigh Kouzehkanani
Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Üniversiteler, 06800 Çankaya/Ankara
Email: tofigh.ata14@gmail.com, ataollah.kouzehkanani@metu.edu.tr
ORCID: 0000-0002-1807-5241
Abstract: Since classical antiquity, the concept of symmetry as one of the substantial principles in architectural design has related to the ideas of proportion, harmony, beauty, and monumentality through the blueprints of plans and façades. In this regard, various interpretations and meanings have been associated with this concept throughout history. This paper first aims to shed further light on the notion and importance of symmetry in Western architecture from classical antiquity to the modern era. Despite the temporal gap, this study tries to scrutinize the way symmetry reflected itself in classical forms, plans, shapes, or angles across a central line called the axis. Although the interpretation of symmetrical design changed after the Renaissance, it remained a fundamental architectural principle until the advent of modern movements. Accordingly, the second part of this study investigates how architects and designers reimagined symmetry in the modern era, transitioning from its association with aesthetics in classical buildings to a rational and functional concept in urban planning and design. Hence, by benefitting from different perspectives and theories spanning classical antiquity, the Renaissance, and the modern era, this study initiates a discourse on symmetry and its evolution as a poetic expression of order, an aesthetic experience, and a foundational concept for modern urbanism on a larger scale.
Keywords: symmetry, classical antiquity, renaissance, architecture, modern urbanism
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