Week 8 // The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa // Colin Rowe

The mathematics of the ideal villa contrasts two villas which are centuries apart, villa Foscari also known as Malcontenta designed by Italian Architect Adrea Palladio in the 16th century and villa Garches designed by Le Corbusier in the 20th century. Colin Rowe himself who is described by the AR's (architectural review) Paul Davies as being "an intellectual who wrote like an angel and dreamt of Renaissance Italy", had a global influence among the architectural society.  

In his writings on the two villas Colin is able to pick out two key principles by which each designer in question applies to their design, we have Palladio who "is concerned with the logical disposition of motifs dogmatically accepted, but attempts to discover a structural reason for his planning symmetries", this approach is one that many 1st year architecture students myself included we take to justify design decisions. However, in this case Palladio was of the caliber and philosophy that it could actually work.  
Villa Foscari - Plan and Elevation


On the other hand, we see Le Corbusier "who is proving a case for structure as a basis for the formal elements of design, contrast the new system with the old and is a little more comprehensive", he does this through establishing his key principle known as the 5 points of architecture: 
  1. Pilotis 
  2. Roof Garden 
  3. Long Windows    
  4. Free Plan 
  5. Elevelation – regulating line as if it were a picture 

Villa Gerches - Plans

Therefore, the plan is designed to be customary, with the natural beauty of the building coming from the elevation, as opposed to villa Foscari where the elevation is customary and its natural beauty comes from the plan, the symmetry of the plan that is expressed beautifully in section. 

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