I am in the middle of reading architect Christopher Alexander's epic four volume work entitled: The Nature of Order describing how recent (he actually dates this from 400 years ago) man-made environments have alienated man from himself, from his surroundings and from nature.
We only have to look at the atrocious modern architecture (and designs) to realize it. Here is my favorite worst:
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The book is really a treatise for all designers and artists, and not just architects.
Basically, a good shape is composed of simple, elementary shapes. He cites the following that he has discovered to be building blocks to a good shape:
Square, line segment, arrowhead, hook, triangle, row of dots, circle, rosette, diamond, s-shape, half circle, stars, steps, cross, waves, spiral, tree, octagon.
Here's an example of a bad shape:
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With its amorphous, unsimplistic and undefined elemental shapes:
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And how a design of a flower can actually be composed of elementary squares, triangles, diamonds, making the overall shape into a good one.
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The two bad shapes feel like they have no balance. It feels like the chair would topple you off as soon as you sit on it, and the ROM extension will collapse on you as soon as you pass under it.
Here's Alexander's wonder at a simple, sturdy, and as he calls it beautiful good shape of a simple Japanese teapot stand:
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