This thesis examines architectural proportion as a measurable spatial system rather than an aesthetic device, investigating whether the Golden Ratio can influence spatial hierarchy, movement, and experience within a building. While proportion has historically been discussed in terms of beauty and visual composition, its spatial consequences — how it shapes circulation, visibility, and navigation — remain underexplored. This research reframes proportion as a testable variable and asks whether geometric rules, applied as spatial logic, produce measurable and perceivable effects. The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia, designed by Peter Cardew, serves as the case study. The existing building (T0) provides a baseline against which two phases of redesign are tested using DepthmapX (DMX), with four spatial metrics evaluated: connectivity, visual integration, visual step depth, and gate count. Phase 1 explores five Golden Ratio—based redesigns (T1–T5), ranging from incremental adjustments to complete reorganizations. Phase 2 introduces a controlled experiment, holding total area, program distribution, and exterior envelope constant while applying targeted Golden Ratio interventions across seven iterations (T1–T7). T7 — applying partition walls aligned with a Golden Ratio grid and relocating the exhibition entrance — emerges as the final design. DMX results show measurable improvements in connectivity, integration, and step depth between T0 and T7. To bridge quantitative data and qualitative experience, paired virtual tours of T0 and T7 were produced, allowing comparison through cognitive, spatial, and embodied dimensions. A conversation with the Belkin's Manager of Technical and Design Services, who independently identified operational changes closely matching those proposed in T7, provided external validation grounded in lived experience of the building. The thesis concludes that the Golden Ratio does not inherently produce better design, and DMX does not fully capture experience. However, when paired, the two methods reframe proportion from a visual rule into a testable spatial variable — demonstrating that even small, controlled geometric interventions can produce both measurable and perceivable shifts in how a building performs.
Jonathan Chu (Thu,) studied this question.