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92 Understanding the project e design process Understanding the space Understanding building structures e human interface Sustainable design Communicating design Organising the space Proportioning systems Proportion is the relationship between one part (or parts) and the whole. It is the relationship between the parts of a whole that has been subdivided, of the vertical to the horizontal, the width to the depth, or the height to the length. It tells us whether something is thick or thin, wide or fl at, tall or short. Proportion exists within an object (the relationship between the height to the width of a table, for example), or as part of a group of objects. e brain naturally sees some proportional relationships as being more a ractive than others, and we have discovered or invented many diff erent proportioning systems to defi ne and control proportional relationships as a result. Some of these systems are recent inventions; others have been in use for centuries and were well known to architects such as Andrea Palladio, who said that proportion is 'harmony for the eyes'. Proportioning systems can be very helpful to the designer, but however comfortable it can feel to design with the authority of an established system to govern design decisions, the system used should not be held as sacrosanct. roughout the design process the designer needs to remain self-critical, and if the results of applying a particular proportioning system do not add anything to the design, then it should not be used purely because of a dogmatic belief in its inviolability. When Le Corbusier's assistants were struggling to apply the sensibilities of the Modulor scale (Le Corbusier's own creation, see page 94) successfully to a building, they asked the architect what they should do. He simply said, 'if it doesn 't work, don 't use it'. Proportioning systems exist to establish a consistent set of visual relationships between the parts of a design. Like the other design principles, proportioning systems are a method of formalising the reasoning behind aesthetic decisions. eir implementation helps to unify and harmonise a set of disparate design elements, and so produce satisfying visual arrangements of building elements, furniture, accessories and so on. Some of the most well-known proportioning systems are described here.