Author of The Ten Books on Architecture, forefather of Western architectural theory
A Roman architect and engineer who wrote the first, and only complete surviving, work of classical architectural theory, The Ten Books on Architecture. He held that a building must satisfy three great principles at once: firmness (firmitas), utility (utilitas), and beauty (venustas) — a triad still the basic standard for judging architecture. He also treated the orders, proportion, city siting, water, and machinery. He took the perfect proportions of the human body as the model for architectural proportion, an idea that, fifteen hundred years later, inspired Leonardo to draw the famous "Vitruvian Man." His book was the bible the Renaissance architects revered.
Vitruvius distilled the standard of good building into three words: firmness, utility, beauty. For two thousand years, however architectural fashion has shifted, these three have scarcely dated — a building must first stand and be useful, and also be beautiful. This plain triad became the first lesson every generation of architects learns, and Vitruvius’s most enduring legacy.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.