2001: ACADIA212

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas: A computationalanalysis of Palladio’s villa design and constructionprocessLarry Sass, PhDMassachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

AbstractThis project is ongoing research focused on finding a method of reconstruc-tion, using computational devices to build, represent and evaluate Palladio’sun-built villas in three-dimensions. The first of The Four Books of Architecturecontains text and images explaining Palladio’s design and construction systemsin the form of rules. These rules were written for masons and craftsmen of the16th century, offering one and two-dimensional data on each of Palladio’s vil-las, palaces and churches. The Four Books offers a general treatment of thevillas; however, it is missing most of the physical construction data needed toexecute a full reconstruction of an un-built building.

Many architects and historians have attempted to reconstruct Palladio’s workin drawings, wooden models and computer imagery. This project presents anew method of reconstruction through the definition of construction rules, inaddition to shape and proportional rules defined by previous scholars. In alsouses 3D printing and texture mapped renderings as design tools. This studyuses the Villa Trissino in Meledo as a test case for the process. The end productis a presentation of a method for reconstruction in the form of a three-dimen-sional analysis of Palladio’s design and construction rules. The goal is to recre-ate all 24 of the villas found in the Four Books with the same method and rulesas a demonstration of qualitative and quantitative input and output from acomputational device.

KeywordsPalladio, Computer Modeling, 3D Printing, Computer Rendering

Shape GrammarsSection 3

2001: ACADIA 213

1 IntroductionThis project is a follow up of two papers writtenby Wittkower and Stiny, on methods for recon-structing Palladio’s villas by rules, shape and com-putation [1]. This paper adds to the theory byreconstructing the villas in three dimensionsverses two, using computer modeling and three-dimensional printing. The process requires in-formation beyond the programmatic line repre-sentations presented by Wittkower and Stiny.This paper will demonstrate the process used toreconstruct 30 of Palladio’s villas in the form ofcomputer modeling (Figure 1). Each resulting villawas represented using a variety of output devicessuch as computer rendering, conventional plans,sections and elevations on paper and three-dimen-sional printing. This paper will also demonstratehow Palladio’s text could be applied to the recon-struction of an entire villa exclusively by rules,from the foundation to the roof. Most importantis that the rules used to reconstruct each villa havebeen rewritten here in a format that allows for adirect application to a computer program or shapegrammar. This paper does not claim that Palladio’srules will lead towards a perfect reconstruction.Instead it is a discussion of a process of qualita-tive and quantitative evaluation and design choice.

2 Villa Design: The First Two Books of Archi-tecture

From 1538 to 1570 Palladio designed over 30 vil-las throughout the Veneto, twenty-four of whichare recorded in the form of drawings in the FourBooks of Architecture. Bertotti Scamozzi recordedthe remaining six villas in the 18th century in theform of etchings. Most important is that Palladiowrote the rules and drawings for the Four Booksafter the villas were built. The drawings reflectwhat he wanted the buildings to be - not the built

condition. Of the thirty drawings, only 19 werebuilt, and of those only two resemble any of thedrawings. Most of the built work differed dramati-cally from the drawings found in the Four Booksor in Scamozzi’s text [2]. Some of the built worksare missing the barns, towers or porticos. Againthe goal here is to reconstruct Palladio’s ideal in-tentions (the drawings in the Four Books) and notthe built conditions, by the rules expressed inBooks One and Two. There are three facts relat-ing to the drawings that make reconstructingPalladio’s villas a challenge:

· Palladio created the drawings and text in the FourBooks of Architecture after the buildings were built.So the drawings in the text are a representation of howPalladio wanted the villas to be and not a representa-tion of the built condition.

· The drawings are in constant conflict with themselves.Dimension strings do not add up to over all sizes, andthe drawings contain little information on the build-ings’ physical construction or how the rules were ap-plied.

· It is difficult to define the rules: what are they, how dothey work in construction and design; what are the unitmeasurements that Palladio uses to define sizes of ob-jects, and how do these objects work by the rules in aspace or spaces.

Of the twenty-four villas (Figures 2 and 3) thereare two types - the country villa or farm villa, andthe urban villa. The country villas were composedof a main house and barns, set at the outer endsof the site. The barns extended from the mainhouse towards the front of the property endingwith a wall and a small opening aligned with theentry of the main house. Country villas werefarms, whose income offset the costs associatedwith owning such an expensive piece of propertyin the countryside. The area within the barns wasused to grow expensive crops and care for live-stock. Urban villas such as the Villas Foscari andRotunda were used for entertainment and as anescape from the hectic pace city life. They didnot have barns (Figure 4).

For both the county and urban villa, the mainhouse contained three levels of service. The mainlevel, or the one elevated from the street levelknown as the piano noble, was used for enter-tainment, and as sleeping quarters for the patron.The second floor contained apartments for ser-

Larry Sass

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas:A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design

and construction process

Figure 1. Process of sketch to CAD to three-dimensional productrepresentation (3D Print)

2001: ACADIA214

vants and storage space for grain. The lower levelwas used for cooking, storage and cleaning. Spaceswere organized symmetrically around a hall, suchthat all spaces on the right were the same as thoseon the left [3]. Principal spaces (loggias, halls, andcourts) were seen as the most beautiful, to beplaced in full view upon entry [4].

3 The Construction ProcessThe construction of walls, ceilings, roofs and base-ments requires information not always found orclearly determined in the Four Books of Architec-ture. Materials are acquired through surveys ofthe built conditions, measuring and document-ing the built conditions and interviews with notedhistorians [5]. In addition to determining the con-struction material, the process must also containmethods for checking rule application during theprocess and in the resulting model. In summary,the process involves qualitative and quantitativemethods for evaluating and testing the processand resulting model.

The process used here involves three steps start-ing with a villa manual and concluding with athree-dimensional representation known as a villamodel. The villa manual is a clarification of rulesfrom the Four Books, rewriting and illustrating eachrule in the form of a simple line of text. Thismanual contains all of the programming, con-struction and ornamental rules needed to recon-struct a villa from a site plan. The first step is toreconstruct the site and villa plan in the form of aline drawing (Figure 5). The second step is toapply construction rules to the line representa-tion of the plan in order to create a digital repre-sentation of Palladio’s design intensions. Thethird step is to reconstruct a digital representa-tion of the elevation from the previous digital planand the elevation drawing in the Four Books. Fi-nally, three dimensional construction rules and or-namental rules are applied to the plan and eleva-

Figure 4. Country villa (Pojana) and an urban villa (Foscari)

Shape GrammarsSection 3

Figure 3. Villa models: built in white, partially built or unbuiltin gray

Figure 2. Palladio’s original drawings

2001: ACADIA 215

tion drawings leading to a villa model represent-ing of half of the final villa (Figure 10). The villamodel is used to create plans, sections and eleva-tion drawings for measurements, in addition to athree dimensional print and renderings of com-plex spaces. Throughout the process each ruletaken from the villa manual, or rule invented bythe author or others is recorded on a spreadsheet.

3.1 Reconstructing the Floor PlanPalladio’s villas can be constructed from a two -dimensional line drawing once the constructionprocedures are known. This part of the system isa based on the use of a set of parametric shapes,systematically applied to the plan diagram (Fig-ure 5) once the proportions and line drawing rep-resenting the plan has been constructed (Figure6-1 – plan diagram). The construction system isused to create a finished plan of walls, ceilings,porticos and stairs. These shapes are plan viewsof construction items and new rules created bythe author. New rules must be written to fill thegaps for general rules written by Palladio. Theserules are scalable, stretchable rules representingthe design or construction that are dependant onthe completion of the previous set of objects onthe plan for their parametric assignment. Theprocess requires the assignment of nine steps, eachwith a series of rules from the villa manual thatcan be applied to the plan. The final representa-tion is a quantitative representation from Palladio’splan drawing in the Four Books.

Plan Reconstruction Steps (Figure 6)1. Assignment of spaces to the plan diagram2. Ceilings notation3. Wall thickness notation4. Portico5. Columns and arches6. Stairs and stair pedestals7. Door notation8. Window notation9. Detail notations

3.2 Reconstructing the ElevationPalladio’s elevations are pictorial representationsof the plan, projecting and adding elements fromthe piano noble. A closer look at the plan andelevations demonstrates that the two drawings donot match. Elevation lines are off from the floorplan or sometimes drawn differently from theplan. This part of the system for reconstructingthe elevation is focused on transforming to a digi-tal representation in nine steps, each represent-ing some aspect of the construction, such as wallheight variation and column location. Most arefocused on a pictorial representation of the partsby locating windows, doors, pediments, moldingsand entablatures. Finished sizes are not of the

Figure 5. Reconstructing the Villa Pojana plan in line form fromthe site and barn on the left to the reconstruction of the final planin line form on the right

Figure 6. Reconstruction of the Villa Cornaro plan drawing from aline representation (Figure 6-1)

Larry Sass

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas:A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design

and construction process

2001: ACADIA216

highest concern. Here the goal is to create a pic-torial reference for heights and object locations.

Elevations Reconstruction Steps (Figure 7)1. Initial Shape2. Walls and Floors3. Cornices4. Portico Steps5. Columns6. Moldings7. Doors and Windows8. Roof and Pediment9. Details

3.3 Constructing the Villa ModelThe Queen Anne Grammar [6] and the Frank LloydWright Grammar [7] use parametric grammars tospecify shapes related to the style of the architect.The difficulty with the use of these grammars hereis that the origin of the sizes for the shapes usedin the grammar is unclear. There is little docu-mentation defining the sizes of the objects andthe reasoning behind their fitness requirements.To address the issue, this study has created amanual containing variables missing fromPalladio’s drawings (see 4.0 Villa Manual).

There are twelve steps toward constructing thefinal villa model. Each step requires sizing andlocation information from the reconstructed planand elevation drawings. The part is created inthree dimensions from information found in thevilla manual. A building part is assigned a set ofvariables also listed on the spreadsheet from rulevariables defined in the illa manual. The rule ap-plication is not formed from pre made objectscombined to make a final product, but formedfrom procedures and profiles in Palladio’s style(fig 8).

Villa Construction model Steps (Figure 8)1. Initial plans2. Walls3. Ceilings4. Cornice5. Portico6. Staircase7. Columns8. Moldings9. Doors10. Windows11. Details12. Roof

Figure 7. Reconstruction of the Villa Cornaro elevationFigure 8. Three steps within villa model reconstruction (initialplan, walls, columns)

Shape GrammarsSection 3

2001: ACADIA 217

4 Input - Manual of RulesThe Four Books of Architecture breaks rules up byobject, proportion and spatial ordering. The villamanual is written in a similar format with moreillustrations and more simplified representationsof the rules. It is broken into 16 sections based onthe Vicenzentine brick, (means of measuring ob-jects such as walls) and mathematical rules usedto define ceiling heights or window opening sizes.Within each section of the manual is a rewritingof the rules from the Four Books or a new ruleneeded to construct a detail or a space not men-tioned in Palladio’s text. A typical series of rulesfrom the villa manual is written in the followingformat:

Rules for stairs (Figure 9)8.1.pa - Staircases may not obstruct other places, nor be

obstructed by them [8]8.2.1.pa - They should be hidden from those that enter the

house[9]8.2.2.pa - They should be in a place so that the most beau-

tiful part of the house is seen first [10]8.3.1.pa - Three openings are required in staircases [11]

A typical rule contains three sets of numbers andtext. The number on the right of the rules indi-cates the rules section, and rule division withinthat section. The “pa” refers to a rule written byPalladio. A rule labeled “ls” or “sm” is a ruleauthored by someone else. In this study themanual of rules is based on three rule types: planprogramming rules, construction rules and ornamen-tal rules.

5 Output - RepresentationThe case study at the end of this paper is presen-tation of the reconstructed villa using four meth-ods of representation and evaluation, each method

addressing qualitative and quantitative issues [12].These representational methods address Schon’spoints on action-in-reflection in that this processis one of learning by doing [13] The concept ofrepresentation is that the more opportunities of-fered to visualize the design, the better the de-sign results. Filmmakers and artists follow a simi-lar process by changing the viewer’s position inrelation to the artificial world with devices fromstereoscopic glasses to virtual reality. Their mis-sion is to visually engage the viewer in the subjectmatter by changing the viewer’s point in relation-ship to the object being viewed [14]. Here the fourmethods of representation include rule graphs,also known as spreadsheets, used to record objectvariables and rule equations, 3D printing of themodel file (Figure 11) from the 3D model (Fig-ure 10), followed by 2D documentation and fi-

Figure 9. Rules for a stair construction, D = riser height & brickthickness, tr = tread depth

Figure 10. CAD representation of the completed Villa Cornarovilla model

Figure 11. 3D printing techniques used to view models in physi-cal form. Smallest model is a sketch representation with very littledetail; largest model is a detailed representation of the villa showingcolumn and ornamental details

Larry Sass

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas:A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design

and construction process

2001: ACADIA218

nally renderings (Figures 30 and 31) used to vi-sualize areas of spatial conflict.

6 Case Study: Reconstructing The Villa Trissino,Meledo

This case study is a presentation of four attemptsto reconstruct the un-built villa Trissino inMeledo (Figure 12), reflecting how the villa wouldhave been built using the rules in the villa manual.The three previous reconstruction attempts wereevaluated in renderings or 3D print form only.Result from each study differed slightly based ondifferent interpretations of the rules by differentpeople. The first attempt was a simple represen-tations constructed for a CD-Rom project (Fig-ure 3). The villa model had no interiors or detailssuch as column or cornice moldings. The secondreconstruction was undertaken in a workshop thefollowing year. Students reconstructed parts of thevilla, later combining those parts to create a fullvilla model. The final results were composed ofinterior and exterior renderings and a three-di-mensional printed model. There were no attemptsto record decisions or a documentation of the fi-nal model. The third version, completed by IsaacPersley, an undergraduate architectural student,was a research project focused on building by therules and recording the steps in graphic and tex-tural form. The rules used in this study were re-corded on a spreadsheet along with a drawing filedefining the application of the rule visually in theform of step-by-step pictorial documentation. Itwas also printed three-dimensionally. The fourthand final version was created using methods de-fined in this paper. There are one, two and three-dimensional records of all decisions used to re-construct the fourth villa model as well as a three-dimensional print and renderings of the centralspace.

6.1 The ReconstructionTo start, the reconstruction an initial grid (a & bof Figure 13) for the main house was placed atopthe hill along with a barn grid at a lower point.These grids are used to define the spacing of thewalls and columns. The measurements for the villaplan were taken from Palladio’s drawing (Figure12), while the barn grid was an interpretation ofthe dimensions (Figure 14) from the drawingthere are no measured drawings of any kind forthis building. The barns are divided into two sec-tions, one circular and the other half square.There are two methods that could be used to findthe center point of the circular barns. The firstmethod is to add the distance between the col-umns and the diameter of the column definingthe barn circumference.

The second is to measure the distance from theedge of the steps leading to the lower terrace tothe first column in the circular barn. The lengthof the barn is found by adding the columns andtheir diameters. Bertotti Scamozzi’s drawing wasreferenced for the number of columns and thespacing between the columns to define the lengthof the barns. The villa barns also sit alongside ofa thin waterway, specified in Palladio’s descrip-tion of the villa [16]

Once the basic layout for the wall grid along withdimensions was established (Figure 14), the pro-cess of adding reconstruction begins starting withthe plan (Figure 15). The only area of conflictwithin the plan reconstruction was in the con-nection between the house and the circular barn.It is unclear how the two were connected in thePalladio’s drawings. In this solution, the attempt

Figure 12. Palladio’s plan of the Villa Trissino in Meledo

Figure 13. Site plan of theVilla Trissino with grid-aand grid-b

Figure 14. Grids-a andgrid-b

Shape GrammarsSection 3

2001: ACADIA 219

was made to join the barns to the outer wall ofthe main house.

The elevation did present some problems inheight definition, which varies substantially be-tween the two barns and the main house (Figure16). In addition to the variation in heights of thebarns, the dome became as much of a construc-tion issue as it was a design issue. The dome isdrawn in the Quattro Libri with a straight line atits base, where the roof of the villa meets the dome,similar to the drawing of the Rotunda. There areno rules for the height of the dome, nor rules forits construction. Here again, another conjectureis made to define the height of the dome. In thiscase the guess is set at 72' to the top of the dome,the same dimension as the inside radius of thebarns (Figure 15).

Model construction is broken into 12 parts asmentioned earlier. Here the main conflict ex-pected to be resolved in the modeling process isthe construction of the large dome over the cen-tral space. Additional areas of conflict are the stairconstruction, basements, junction between barnsand the house and the roof of the main house.

6.1.1 The Initial PlanAlthough the first level of the plan shows the barnsand the basement as one piece, the site separatesthe villa and its into three separate pieces: thebasement, the upper barn and the lower barn. Thewalls at the basement of the villa follow the rulessystem for walls, which states that they are to betwice the thickness of the walls at the piano noble.(Figure 17).

6.1.2 WallsThe floor-to-floor height is missing from theoriginal Palladian drawing for the piano noble andthe barns. However he does give dimensions forthe height of the walls from the piano noble tothe bottom of the roof cornice. Here 17' was givento the first floor, one to the floor thickness and8'-0" was given to the upper story. In this case theconjecture for the basement wall height was takenfrom previous studies defining the basement at11'-0" in height. The barns were given heights of15' for the lower barn and 15' for the upper (Fig-ure 18)

6.1.3 Ceilings, Vaults and FloorsThe only ornate ceiling in the villa is a barrelvaulted entry hall. It turns out that there are two

Figure 15. Plan reconstruction derivation Figure 16. Elevation reconstruction derivation

Larry Sass

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas:A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design

and construction process

2001: ACADIA220

rooms with the potential of supporting a vaultedceiling-the entry room and the small outer room,adjacent the connection to the barns. The middlespace is a double height space similar to a largepalace space with a flat ceiling. Basement vaultsare semi-elliptical vaults (Figure 19).

6.1.4 CorniceThe cornice is the most complicated part of theassembly. Each cornice type (c1, c2, etc.) is com-posed of three design conditions - an extrusionof the profile, a cap condition at the corners wheretwo cornices meet and a reverse cap conditionwhere two cornices meet in a corner. Composedof two parts, the Corinthian order is customizedin four different ways. The first of the Corinthianorders is used for the balcony projection underthe portico (c2); the second is used at the rotunda(c3), the third is the most ornate (c4), in this caseplaced under the pediment; the last is a flattenedversion with the least ornamentation, and it is usedunder the roof (c5). The most complicated con-nection or joint is at the portico. Here Palladioextends the ornate entablature (c4) over the col-umns away from the flattened cornice (c5) thatsurrounds the walls (Figure 20).

6.1.5 Portico and StepsThere are three different portico stairs, each withits own function and layout. Types (s1) and (s2)are formal types leading to the porticos of the villa.Types (s3) and (s5) are service stairs leading tothe upper and or lower barns. Type (s5) is a for-mal stair dividing the two gardens. The greatestconflict is in (s5) which is modeled differently thanPalladio’s original drawing. Palladio’s drawingsshowed a set of stairs heading into the lower barns.This gave little room for a landing. The solutionhere calls for a switch back stair leading to thelower barn (Figure 21)

6.1.6 StaircasesThere are three types of stairs, each made of thestandard brick supporting system, but there isquestion as to how the formal stair might havebeen constructed. Palladio shows the stair as awrapping rectangular stair without an inner wall.It is not clear how it would support itself with outa wall, so one was added in this study (Figure 22)

Figure 17. Plan Reconstruction using wall notations from theplan reconstruction

Figure 18. Wall derivation

Figure 19. Ceiling derivation

Figure 20. Cornice types

Shape GrammarsSection 3

2001: ACADIA 221

Figure 21. Porticos and exterior stairs

Figure 22. Interior stairs

Figure 23. Columns and arches

Figure 24. Molding Reconstruction

Figure 25. Doors

6.1.7 Columns and ArchesIt is unclear as to what orders Palladio might haveused for the barns, and for the main villa. Palladiospecifies that the loggias are to be of theCorinthian order and that the barns are Tuscan.Bertotti Scamozzi challenges this by saying thatthe upper barns were designed by Palladio to beof the Ionic order and that the lower barns weremeant to be of the Tuscan Palladio does not as-sign an order to the half columns in the dome. Inthe Four Books he states “There are some half col-umns in the hall, that support a gallery, into whichone goes from the rooms above; which by reason theyare but seven feet high, serve for mezzati [17] “Bertotti Scamozzi lists the order under the dometo be Corinthian. It is most likely that the realchallenge is the dome and not the orders (Figure23)

6.1.8 MoldingsThere are two molding types (double and single)surrounding the lower levels of the villa and barn(Figure 24).

6.1.9 DoorsRoom doors worked fine when installed byPalladio’s rules. The formula for the principaldoors did not work at the second story, the top ofthe doorway conflicted with the ceilings. Theheight of the opening and archway at the colon-nade level of the barns had to be altered to com-pensate for the large entablature (Figure 25).

6.1.10 WindowsThe generic window size generated by the ruleswas used in the upper and lower barns. Windowsat the upper level of the house was not generatedby a Palladian rule (Figure 26).

6.1.11 DetailsHere, two principal door types are used, the scrollbeing the most formal of the two. Balustrades andnewel post are used at the balcony level (Figure27).

6.1.12 Roof and PedimentThe pediment is of the Corinthian type angled at23.2 degrees,(Figure 28).

6.2 Results and ConflictsWith the exception of the internal workings ofthe dome, the final model was a successful repre-sentation of the Villa Trissino (Figure 29). An

Larry Sass

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas:A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design

and construction process

2001: ACADIA222

interior study presented two complications (Fig-ures 30 and 31) in the construction of the domeand details. First, there are no rules for definingthe height of the dome. Although the Villa Ro-tunda is rendered with a similar dome, the twocannot be compared in construction or design.The Rotunda’s dome is drawn almost as if it weremetal with little wall space between the base ofthe dome and the top of the villa roof. The

Figure 26. Windows

Figure 27. Details

Figure 28. Cornice, roof truss and roof

Figure 29. Three-dimensional print from the CAD model

Shape GrammarsSection 3

Figure 30. Proposals for the Corinthian and Ionic orders at thedome

2001: ACADIA 223

Trissino dome has walls extended far above theroofline for the main house and the dome has aradius lower than that of the Rotunda. Palladio’sdrawing shows the Villa Trissino dome with mold-ings and details around the upper portion of thedome, which could mean that the dome was com-posed of brick not metal. Here the height wasdefined as 60’ from the rotunda floor to the ceil-ing of the dome. The second conflict is over thehalf columns in the central space. Palladio doesnot specify an order. Scamozzi speculates that thecolumns are of the Corinthian order while Burnsdefines the order to be Ionic. The two possibleorders are tested in this next section.

6.3 Interior StudyThe question here is what was the order of thehalf columns? The possibilities include the Ionicand the Corinthian orders as mentioned byScamozzi and Burns. There are two referencesthat can be taken from other dome spaces similarin composition to this villa. The first is theTempietto Barbaro at Maser, which happens toalso have a portico of the Corinthian order and adomed space articulated with half columns alsoin the Corinthian order. These half columns sup-port a balcony of thin balustrades, above with nosupporting newel post. The second space is simi-lar to the design of the Villa Rotunda, which is ofthe Ionic order on the outside and frescos withcolumns of no particular order on the inside. Theinner wall below supports the balcony, lined withbalustrades and newel posts but not columns.Here the two are tested qualitatively. In conclu-sion, there is not a logical reason behind the se-lection of column types. These choices cannot bereduced to a purpose in the design based on struc-ture, construction or visual satisfaction.

7 Summary of Findings from the Villa TrissinoAs simple as it sounds, fitness served as a majorconflict in the execution of the rules. Conflictswere the project’s greatest asset as they lead todesign investigation or invention. Palladio’s de-signs thrived on conflicts between the rules. Ad-hering to major design rules while breaking lesserrules forced him to invent new design solutionsto classical design problems. Design occurs at thejunction of conflicting rules. Unfortunately com-putational rules are much more rigid, containingmany fitness requirements. Little has been writ-ten on the issue of fitness and rule, also referredas a constraint model [18] If the process of recon-struction were a linear rule operation, startingwith the site and ending with a pyramid style roofset atop villa walls, each rule would define a newobject that must be aligned precisely with the pre-vious component. As the model is constructed theprogram would be able to calculate each compo-nent and adjust the size or insertion for each com-ponent automatically through fitness extensionsto each rule. Fitness challenges the extent of therule by requiring a certain amount of flexibilityin the execution of a rule. But if the rule is too

Larry Sass

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas:A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design

and construction process

Figure 31. Rendering of the central hall with half columns in theCorinthian Order

2001: ACADIA224

flexible is cannot be defined as a rule of a certaincategory or type. The challenge and creativity isin writing the rule, not in its execution. In thisstudy fitness pertains to two or more objects thatcome in contact with other objects, requiring thatone or more objects fit inside, next to, along sideof or between two or more objects [19]. The ques-tion here is how to break down rule conditionsbased on fitness and degrees of fitness.

8 Future WorkIn conclusion, this paper is a presentation of anun-built villa in many dimensions constructed byPalladio’s rules. These rules will also be used tocreate 29 other villas at the same level of detail.The process will also help to examine the ruleconflicts as well as add to rules established in thisstudy. This project also demonstrated that a re-construction needs two types of rules - construc-tion and design. Construction rules are predomi-nately parametric instruments used to constructobjects once origin points have been defined.Design rules in this project are used to organizethe plan and ornamentation application. At boththe level of construction or design, real designdecisions happen when rules conflict. What makesthe process even greater has been the methods ofrepresentation used to construct and evaluate eachconjecture. Three-dimensional printing of objectscalls for more information on the side of the ar-chitect leaving little room for ill defined conjec-tures.

BibliographyAckerman, James 1965. The Architect and Society, Pelican

Books

Burns, H.,B. Boucher, and L. Fairbairn. 1975. AndreaPalladio 1508-1580: The Portico and the Farm-yard, Lon-don.

Burns, Howard. 1991. Building and Construction in Palladio’sVicenza. in Les Chauders de la Renaissance. ed. GuillaumeParis

Crary, Jonathan 1990. Techniques of the Observer: On Visionand Modernity in the Nineteenth Century, MIT Press

Green, D S., David C. Brown. 1987 “Qualitative reason-ing during design about shape and fit: A preliminary re-port”. in Expert systems in computer aided design Edited byJohn s. Gero 1987

Flemming, U. 1987 “More than the sum of parts: the gram-mar of Queen Anne Houses” Environment and PlanningB Vol 14

Gross, M., Stephen Ervin, James Anderson, Aaron Fleisher,1987 “Designing with constraints” in Computability ofdesign. 1987 Edited by Yehuda E. Kalay

Hersey, George L., Richard Freedman, 1992, Possible Pal-ladian villas: plus a few instructively impossible ones, MITpress

Koning H, Eizenberg J, 1981 “The language of the prairie:Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie houses” Environment andPlanning B Vol 8

Mitchell, W. J., 1977 Computer Aided Architectural Design,Mason/Charter Publishers, Inc.

Mitchell, W. J., 1990 The Logic of Architecture, MIT Pres

Palladio, Andrea (b) - 1965, The Four Books of Architecture,translation by Isaac Ware in 1738. New York, DoverPublications

Bertotti Scamozzi, Ottavio Bertotti, 1719-1790: The build-ings and the designs of Andrea Palladio, Trento: La Rocchia,1976.

Schon, Donald A. 1987, Educating the Reflective Practitioner,Jossey Bass Inc.

Stiny, G., WJ. Mitchell, (a) 1978 “The Palladian Gram-mar.” Environment and Planning B Vol 5

Stiny, G.,WJ. Mitchell, (b) 1978 “Counting Palladian plans”Environment and Planning B Vol 5

Stiny, G. Gips, (c) 1978 “An evaluation of Palladian Plans”Environment and Planning B Vol 5

Stiny, G., 1980 (a) “Introduction to shape and shape gram-mars” Environment and Planning B Vol 7

Tufte, E R., 1997 Visual Explanations: Images and Quanti-ties, Evidence and Narrative, Graphic Press

Wittkower, Rudolf 1949 Architectural Principles in the Ageof Humanism. Alec Tirantiver

Shape GrammarsSection 3

2001: ACADIA 225

Larry Sass

Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas:A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design

and construction process

Notes1. Stiny/Mitchell 1978 p. 62. Scamozzi, B., 19763. Palladio, A. 1965 Book I, Chapter 21 par. 14. Palladio, A. 1965 Book II, Chapter 2 par. 15. Most of the interviews were conducted on Howard Burns

from the University of Venice or James Ackerman ofHarvard University

6. Flemming, U. 19877. Koning, H., 19818. Palladio, A. 1965 Book I, Chap 28, par 19. Ibid., par 210. Ibid.11. Ibid.12. Tufte, E R, 199713. Schon 198714. Crary, J. 1990 p.3915. Mitchell, W J., pp. 137-15316. Palladio, A. 1965 p.5417. Ibid, p. 5118. Gross, M 198719. Ibid., p. 95

2001: ACADIA226