Rhythm



Rhythm in visual arts is an attribute of any object that is marked by a systematic recurrence of elements having recognizable relationships between them.
 * NOTES ABOUT READING **

There are many types of rhythm: First, there is the repetition of shapes: windows, doors, columns, wall areas, arches, and the like. Second, there is the repetition of dimensions, such as the dimensions between supports or those of bay spacing. A third and more complex type of rhythm is based on the repetition of differences. In this rhythmical series, the ascending and descending progressions are built up from small to large and to small again. But when the large is in the center, you experience a sense of swelling to an important element and diminishing to a small one progressing from a quiet beginning to a climax and then relaxing again. Rhythms may be indefinite and open or definite and closed. A mere repetition of similar units equally spaced and without a defined beginning or a defined end is called an open rhythm. Rhythms can be closed by changing the shapes of the units at the ends or by changing the size of the units at the ends. It can also be closed by adding to each end a strongly marked opposing rhythm.

There is another type of rhythm of great importance in architecture: the rhythm of lines. Such rhythms can be merely systematic variations of linear lengths or curvatures.

The spiral is one of the most rhythmical of forms because of its combination of repeated curves around a focus and the continual progressive change in the radius of the curvature. The fact that the spiral finally winds around to a point of minimum curvature gives it a powerful close.

In exterior rhythms, the problem is in the rhythms of the masses themselves. The repeated masses of Rockefeller Center are similar to each other yet different, and all, with their subtly designed breaks form a rhythmical composition of the greatest interest. There has to be a rhythmical basis for the changing heights, widths, and setbacks. There is a rhythm in the relation of end wings to the point of central interests; there is rhythm in the outline of a good tower as it narrows from the bottom upwards.

In a city there could be involve many types of rhythm, for example the repetition of shapes like the volume of the structures, the blocks and plots, streets, etc.