"Natural landscapes may exhibit the beauty of rhyme and contrast simply in their static structure. But people who live in the landscape —as men live in cities—the dynamic structure, the diachronic rhymes, add a new dimension to aesthetic pleasure. They see the same landscape in a state of flux. But, through every change, the landscape retains its identity and each transformation gives them new insight into its essential character." — N.Humphrey

The word diachronic refers to comparisons we make through time. This term offers the architect a very direct and meaningful description of an arrangement or treatment of parts or events occurring not at the same time but through the variable of time.

Although the word is not in use in everyday conversation, it can capture the transformations in appearance through movement, weather, night and day, and time very clearly. One could conceptualize the comparison from one second to the next or from one season to another.

Another example in the field of colour theory is the concept of ‘successive colour contrast’, where the same colour appears to differ in chromatic strength (saturation) if preceded by its complementary colour.




If one walks through a green corridor, for example, prior to moving to a red one, the red appears stronger or more vivid.

In the context of the study of aesthetics, the term ‘diachronic rhyme’ has been specifically used by Nicholas Humphrey (Architecture for People [Mikellides [1980]) to refer to the pleasure we get when comparing something to its precious self—the rhyme of the flower with the bud, the rhyme of the recurring musical composition.

The sense of order gradually emerging as we pass through the streets of a town Like Amsterdam is an example of diachronic rhyme according to Professor Peter F.Smith: ‘Amsterdam is a case of what Gerard Manley Hopkins called “likeness tempered with difference” extended over the city.’