The Aesthetics of Architectural Design by Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio, also known as Andrea di Pietro Della Gondola, was born in November 30th, 1508 in Padua, Republic of Venice (Italy) and died August 1580 in Vicenza (Richardson). He was an Italian architect who was renowned as the greatest architect of 16th century Italy (ibid). Palladio was known for his palace designs (palazzi) and villas, particularly the Villa Rotonda, which was built in 1551 near Vicenza (ibid). He is also known for his book “Treatise I Quattro Libri Dell’Architettura” (which translates to “The Four Books of Architecture”) (ibid). This made him one of the most influential figures in Western architecture. His style was very elegant and distinct that it gave birth to a movement named “Palladianism”, a style of architecture based on his writings and buildings (Britannica). The main ideological underpinning of Palladio’s work was that architecture should be undergirded by reason and by the principles of classical antiquity that were found in old surviving buildings and the writings of Vitruvius (ibid). Palladianism is a display of order and symmetry while also paying homage to antiquity in its use of classical forms and decorative ornaments (ibid). Most architects who came after Palladio (with the exception of Vincenzo Scamozzi) were not really interested in carrying out the themes and principles of Palladio’s work in terms of his search for harmonious proportions.

The villas designed by Palladio always followed the principles of symmetry, proportion, the use of orders, and the placement of a Temple front and a Palladian window (also known as the Venetian window). The best example of this is the Villa La Rotonda, which is arguably his magnum opus. The Rotonda has an interesting central dome and its design lucidly illustrates the geometric basis of Palladian architecture (Abitare). In the plan (see figure 1), the circle is inscribed in a square, and the divisions of the rooms inside adhere to the rules of proportion, forming the cubic volume that encapsulates and hides the great circular space of the central hall (ibid). The building is essentially a symmetrical square plan with identical porticoes projecting from each of the façades. Also, on each side of the cube there is a temple pediment, which is a rejection of the hierarchy of a main facade overpowering the other sides (conventionally the temple pediment would only be placed on one side of the building to highlight the entrance façade.) (Abitare). Palladio was able to design a serene, sophisticated construction by stressing balance, visual clarity, and uniformity. Paradoxically, the design maintains its complete rigid symmetry without being overpowered by a sense of monotony and redundancy, and this is because of the sophisticated language that it uses. At the center of the building, a dome emerges over a central, circular hall. Palladio was concerned with harmony and mathematical continuity and used the square and the circle as essential, yet elegant forms. The quaint attributes of the Villa La Rotonda with respect to its environment are not fortuitous. Palladio took the landscape surrounding La Rotonda into consideration. Palladio describes the building in his book in the following terms: 'The place is nicely situated and one of the loveliest and most charming that one could hope to find; for it lies on the slopes of a hill, which is very easy to reach. The loveliest hills are arranged around it, which afford a view into an immense theatre; because one takes pleasure in the beautiful view on all four sides, loggias were built on all four facades.' (Hoepli). In this way, La Rotonda presents four equally spectacular views: each of the porticoes are a place from which one can contemplate and observe the beauty of nature. Because of its unique design, an attractive façade is almost always visible: the viewer who walks around the villa never encounter a boring subsidiary façade or a non-favourable angle.

Another work that is emblematic of Palladio’s work is the San Giorgio Maggiore church. The building is situated on the island of San Giorgio. Built as part of the Benedictine monastery on the island, the church's facade is tailored to present a public face to the town of Venice. It dominates and partially hides the brick body of the church behind it, while it reflects the interior space of the nave and its side chapels. Palladio’s facade is an exemplar of the Mannerist arrangement of classical components, it is dominated by a central pediment that is placed in the upper middle of the two halves of a broken pediment (this is visible in figure 3). The building is also notable for its capacious heavily illuminated interior (see figure 4), in which a set of columns separates the high altar from the choir area behind it. The central temple front is on top of four Composite columns that are raised on high pedestals which act as a frame for the main door. Inside the church, the lower body of the structure contains a smaller order of pilasters that support two half pediments on either side. The cornice line continues through the central part of the church, connecting the two forms. The coalescing of these elements and the intricate sculptural detail of capitals, cornices, niches and statues make the building quite impressive, especially when it is incorporated into the great interplay of light and dark in the sunlight.

The interior plan combines aspects of both longitudinal and centralized layouts, which is an astute solution that is in response to the rigid rules of the Renaissance templates (see figure 5). The interior ceiling is a barrel vault that is interrupted by an intersecting body where the large dome is placed. The dome rests on four arches that stand on sets of columns (this is an implementation of the structural principle of pendentives). Surprisingly, the side aisles have a different form of ceiling than the one in the nave; a cross vault system, this also applies to the transept and the chapels that intersect the nave, and beyond the intersection is the area of the priest and a monk's choir. The windows of the church bring light to the side chapels and to the nave, and the interior is illuminated with a warm light. The architectural detail of the church vocabulary such as the columns, pilasters, capitals, bases, entablatures, framed arches and railings and the darkened aged walls adds to the prominence of the church and the elegant sequence of spaces.

Palladio’s architecture is highly elegant and unorthodox, it breaks the restrictive rules of the renaissance school of architecture while maintaining a general framework of harmony, symmetry and balance. Palladian architecture is relatively unorthodox due to the fact that it dispenses with the idea of a “decorum” and uses different orders in the same building. Palladio’s architectural style allowed for more flexibility in design, which allowed for more unrestrained creative designs that were not limited to the rigid axioms of the Renaissance vocabulary. The principles of Palladianism never ceased to lose their influence, and different variants and offshoots rose from its core principles. Neo Palladianism became popular in Britain and North America, and has manifested itself in many different forms. By breaking some of the rules of rigid classical Vitruvian architecture, this encouraged other architects to experiment with the vocabulary and construct more interesting forms, which has arguably contributed to the movement of neo-classical architecture in North America. Evolving movements and schools of thought in the history of architecture are always instigated in reaction to a previous movement, and the Palladian movement has influenced the trajectory of that evolution in an interesting way. Palladio has left an indelible mark on architectural history and certain elements of his design remain visible, and can even be compared to the modernist architecture of Le Corbusier (Colin). It provided a new perspective that the following architects haven’t considered, and it has reshaped the way architects think about vocabulary and composition.