Guidelines

"A guideline is a protection against the arbitrary. It is the crucial test by which any work done ardently gains legitimacy. It is the student's way of checking his answers, the logician's proof of his thesis.

"A guideline is a spiritual appeasement that leads to a search for ingenious and harmonious relations. It confers eurhythmy to the work.

"A guideline gives the work a mathematical aspect and a benign sense of order. Setting a guideline determines the fundamental geometry of the work, defining, therefore, one of it fundamental impressions. Setting a guideline is one of the decisive moments of inspiration, one of the main operations of architecture." Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture . [A portion of a chapter devoted to guidelines]