Visible objects are formally distinguished according to the prevailing features as linear, planar and volumetric. These signs are rather conditional, since physically all existing objects are three-dimensional, even a thin rod or a sheet of paper.
The closer an observer is to an object, the more information he can get about its properties. However, to create the most complete, reliable and aesthetically favorable impression of the object is useful to find the optimal distance and angle of view for its observation. An artistically valuable object, deprived of the possibility of a review revealing its merits, loses its expressive qualities.
So, many architectural monuments in the cities are hidden by the surrounding high buildings, and the placement of a beautiful panel on the wall of a long narrow corridor is compositionally impractical.
The size of the object in comparison with the viewing distance gives the estimated information about its functional purpose and the logic of its dimensional relations with other objects. Its position in space, expressed in the coordinate system, is fixed in the form of a massive volume, a flat vertical or horizontally extended body of simple geometric shapes that have additions that determine the features of its silhouette and the overall proportional system.
Further approach to the object and analysis of its forms allow us to judge the differentiation of its volume and surface articulations having natural or technical origin (masonry, tiers of floors). Divisions are one of the most productive compositional techniques, giving by means of different intervals of division of the form in all directions the impression of its equilibrium or dynamism, proportional relations of parts and the whole, weight associations.
Vertical articulation of the object allows us to judge it as a set of horizontally conjugate elements distributed on the principle of symmetry-asymmetry with the identification of the main and subordinate parts, harmoniously cohesive proportional proportionality.
Horizontal divisions, distributing the" layers " of the object vertically, are designed to identify its weight, tectonic system. Recall that under the tectonics refers to the logic of power and weight ratios between the carrier and parts carried by the structural systems, sensible to artistic images. For example, tectonics post-and-beam construction, expressed in any of the ancient orders, shows the elastic and reliable resistance of the columns of gravity of the upper structure, expressive ehenam reinforced tapered, slightly springy silhouette supports. The term "tectonics" in General is successfully used to characterize any harmonious structural constructions, coinciding with the extended use of the term "architecture" (tectonics of the poem, architecture of the Symphony).