A piece in Sunday’s New York Times, Why We Love Beautiful Things is of interest to those of us who love architecture and design.

Lance Hosey, nationally known architect and expert on sustainable design discusses what both neuroscience and ancient geometry tell us about what we like to look at – and why. The color green apparently gives the brain a boost of creativity and motivation, subliminally reminding us of the outdoors, where our nourishment comes from.

He discusses the pleasing proportions of The Golden Rectangle, which when you remove a square leaves another Golden Rectangle, and so on. The rectangles and fractals found in the face of Mona Lisa, the original ipod, and a Jackson Pollack painting, all speak to our brains. Art moves us.