Flash forward about 30 years, and the discussions between John Henry and Greg LaVardera in the old CORA forum "modernism vs tradition" forced a second look. John (see floridarchitect.com) is a master at adapting renaissance ideas to the Florida mansion. Greg (lamidesign.com) is a building science jock whose goal is to bring good affordable modern design to the masses. Sort of an "Architecture Within Reach". I find myself swaying in the breeze between these two. A little of this, a little of that. I mainly like my designs to look as if they "belong". Maybe not arresting, but rewarding a second look.
In any event, John got me interested in Palladio a couple years ago and I went on-line and stumbled across a book, "Learning from Palladio" by Branko Mitrovic. Now this guy has some serious scholastic "cred", Phd from Penn, postdoctoral studies at Harvard, and his book is a rather learned treatise, but highly readable. Find a used copy on Amazon, its well worth it. There are discussions of the various relationship values employed, analyses of the various structures, some good photographs, floor plan depictions, even a section on Palladian applications in recent structures. A good read.
A couple days ago, John mentioned in a forum that a client was thinking about recreating Villa Rotonda, which any architect or home designer will tell you is the iconic Palladian Villa many of us hold in our mental repositories, for me along with examples such as the George Wythe house, Fallingwater, Farnsworth, Gamble residence, etc. We all have them. John figured about 12,700 s.f. for Rotonda. Greg chimed in "just another damned mcmansion" Tongue in cheek, I suggested one could add on a bit by finishing under the porticoes and stairs. The seed was planted. What kind of reasonable house could be designed using the parti of Rotondo, but scaled to a standard more attainable by mere mortals?
I started with the plan. Rotonda has 4 tight passageways leading to the porticoes, with 4 large rooms in the corners and 4 small rooms along the horizontal axis. I didnt want to work with that, so I adapted and simplified ideas from Trissino and Thiene. The idea here is 4 square (1 to 1) rooms in the corners, and then a golden sectioned room in the middle. What this allows is a variety of spaces, with the large spaces giving access to the porticoes, so the rooms and terraces can be enjoyed along with the views. The center is now a 1 to 1 core, over which a cylindrical raised dome can be placed. The next step was to determine the size. I started with a 14 square. The golden section indicates a 22 1/2 center space, add walls and you have a 52 square.
The facade produces its own problems. With the stairs placed in their quadrant, height is limited by the number of 10" treads. That along with cost expediency suggested 10 1st floor. Im sure I can find an approved relationship to justify this. 10 to 14 is close to the square root of 2, or the diagonal of a square, a common renaissance proportion. Next come the porticoes. These have to be simplified. No way to justify the expense. 4 columns each, max. Their spacing to suggest the plan relationships. Their height limited by keeping an egress window sill height above. Non- palladian concerns to be sure. I made them 8 deep because any less would be too small. I limited the stairs to the center section only. See Villa Chiericati.
Another hesitation is exterior treatment. My inclination is to adopt the stripped down aesthetic seen in many of the villas. There are couple ways to go here, all with reasonable precedent. I f I come back to this, Ill flesh something out and update. Another thing to note is the lack of fireplaces and chimneys. Im not sure what they did to ward off the chill in Vicenza, but we will be well air-conditioned and heated, so no worries there. The usual focal point in the rooms is replaced by glass doors leading out to the porticoes framing the views.
Dont be worried about the 16 scale of the center dome. Your eye will read the 22-6 rectangular core instead. The total height is a square root of 3 proportion to this width. (1.73 to 1) I should also note that in the plan, the narrowed section at the entry is a golden section relationship itself .
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