Before the modern era in architecture canonical and even the model was considered to be the architectural formulas of Vitruvius (Roman architect and engineer of the second half in 1.. BC), which met the needs of his time ( Baroque, classicism, Gothic, Romanesque style and etc.).. That Vitruvius explained that the first principles of architecture is strength, utility and beauty. For him the beauty of any structure depends on the proportions that should be correlated with specific, certain him, a harmonious relationship of the proportions of the human body.
With the onset of the period of modernism (not to be confused with art Nouveau ) and the spread of modern building materials and technologies, the crisis of the "single era" and the emergence of the principle of difference of cultures, architectural form almost irreversibly began to break away from function. Form today increasingly depends not on the material, as in the days of Vitruvius, and the semiotics of the claims of the customer or of the author-architect. The formula of Vitruvius was interested in only students and "classicists". Develops in a variety of styles of architecture is extremely large and spread all over the world, especially today appreciated the beauty of the ancient traditions and modernization.