TFA does not quite explain the logic of this and somewhat suggests it as unique when it was the norm. If you are building a church, what better metric is there than the church you are building? There is no reason to measure, you can just subdivide with very basic tools. We want the entrance to be in the center, that is 1/2 church instead of 8.385 meters and that door is 1/6 church wide and 3/4 church tall. We want wi…
A lot of words but I agree with you with all my heart. Proportions best relate to the whole, not some “2 inches from the edge” or whatever arbitrary standard. What I would add also is the human scale . Along with the dimensions of the space you are filling, the scale of the humans using the cabinet are important as well. Height, eye level, arm length, waist height, etc.
Standard table height is stand up straight, let your arm hang straight down, make a fist, your knuckles are at table height. Works perfectly with chairs measured by elbow to finger tip and perfect for working at while standing when doing things like kneading bread or pushing a hand plane, puts the surface low enough that you can put your upper body into it and not just your arms.
A great many of things we interact with on a daily basis developed the standards we have today centuries before we had standards for measurement, back when calibrated measurement was academic and legal, impractical and abstract.