• Villa – 'building designed for owner's enjoyment and relaxation.

Possibly also center of

agricultural enterprise, nevertheless mainly designed for pleasure.

• Farmhouse-Villa divide – Both rural types, farmhouse is usually simpler in structure, rarely
designed with architectural intervention, very conservative type. Villa is characterstical for its
period and is usully a type suited for architectural experimentation

• Villa type was born from roman-partician architectural efforts and it remained unchanged since
then. While the form has change the functionality remained the same

• Villa urbanistic characterstics:

◦ inherently tied to metropolitan development.
◦ tied to economic situation of the city
◦ developed as a surplus of urban commerce
◦ not necessairly situated in nearest city proximity (imperial wealth)
◦ Villa estate is a particular case of a villa
▪ provide cultural center
▪ center of agricultural enterprise
▪ function of importing (creating?) urban values to new places
◦ Inherently economically reliant on slavery
▪ isolation and dependece are not very attractive economically
▪ slavery is cheaper
◦ reserved for people in power/people of wealth/strictly bourgeois concept
◦ King Villa is a particular case of a villa
▪ financed via public wealth
▪ hybrid of villa and palace type
▪ symbolic and representational function
▪ (!!!!) Villa Adriana de Tivoli is a notable example

• Villa ideology
◦ rooted in view of idyllic country life
◦ satisfaction of psychological needs of a city dweller
◦ in case of villa its ideology is 'means by which the dominant class reinforces and justifies
the social and eocnomic structure and its priveleged position within it, while obscuring its
motivation from others and itself
◦ villa is an architectural myth that people of wealth over the ages tried tor ealise to the best of
their ability with the use of labour class or slaves
◦ rooted in urban – rural lifestyle contrast
◦ early villa ideology comes from Stoic philosophy, rich urban dwellers, inteligentsia
members, would go to their rural villas to cultivate land with little to no help, the philosophy
progressed to more epicurean 'pleasure centres' which is a pattern that repeated during
different villa revivals

Crucial villa eras: late republic/early empire; rennaisance in italy (~15th century), Le Corbusier 20th
century revival, 18th century in GB, 19th century US Trascedentalism – best sources of villa literature.
Virtually Pliny, Palladio and Le Corb rephrased differently the very same philosophy
• Subtypes:
◦ villa marittima
▪ seaside villa
◦ colonial villa
▪ larger than regular villa, usually a town substitute, principle upholding since roman
times where villas on the fringe territories had much more developed functionality. Such
villa estates often developed entire, real tows around the villa. It is esepcially true for
americans south
◦ diletto villa
◦ self-sustaining villa- in itself an administrative unit, technically a town substitute
◦ otium (epicurean) villa
▪ antithesis of negotium
▪ 'serenity'
▪ place of relaxation
▪ opposittion to cato villa
▪ nature focused
▪ idealises country in general
◦ rustica (cato) villa
▪ focused on agricultural ecnomy
▪ divided into latifundia and middle-size farms
▪ built around the needs of the production rather than comfort (e.g. kitchen built around
access for animals to scrap or to compost)
▪ proprietor is not expected to stay there for too long
▪ idealises the countrymen as the strongest ones
◦ villa urbana
▪ modelled after urban house
▪ suburbia
▪ half-way between otium villa and urban house
▪
• Famous Villas to remember
◦ Villa Laurentinum of Pliny the Younger
◦ Tusci Villa of Pliny the Younger
◦ Villa of the Mysteries of Pompeii
◦ Monticello of T. Jefferson
◦ Villa Anthee
◦ Fiesole Villa di Medici
◦ Villa Medici by Sangallo
◦ Villa Godi by Palladio
◦ Villa Lante by Giulio Romano
◦ Villa D'Este by Pirro Ligorio
◦ Farnesina
◦ Villa Farnese
◦ Belvedere
◦ Taliesin by FLW
 ◦ Tugendhat House in Brno
◦ Ames Gate Lodge
◦ Coonly house at Riverside
◦ >for post modernism the works of Mario Botta, Robert Venturi, Peter Eisenman
◦ Villa Savoye
◦ Falk House by Eisenman

• Villa Economics
◦ possesion of a priveleged class member
◦ The villa social pyramid consists of the proprietor-servants/proprietor-bailiffs-farm
labourers
◦ Economics differentiates feudal castle from villa. Relation between the lord and retainers
was contractual and reciprocal. Protection was provided in exchange for providing goods
and military services. The nobility post feudal system's fall didn't adapt to villa ideoogy
until late so a lot of the families died out
◦ The situation in french was very distinct where in miedival times the chateau type
developed which was upheld as monarchy only gained in power so the aristocracy had to
continue cooperation with the court as retirement was too risky hence why in France the
distiction between chateau (upper classes) and villa developed (lower classes)
◦ Economic villa division:
▪ self-sustaining agricultural estate that operted on surplus which enables the high class
lifestyle
▪ diletto villa (from italian delight) that is depedent on an urban capital as serves asa
retreat for urban dweller. Also a paradox

◦ the imperial south usa architecture and northern anti british farmhouse are mirrored in cato
and pliny villa philosophy divid. Cato, like protestant value hard work without the
idealisaiton of villawhile pliny was a representant of the otium villa philosophy. This was a
seed of civil wars in iether of the cases

In 19th century, egalitarian social philosophy, garden city urbanism, A.J. Davis and Downing planning,
villa literature of romanticism democratised villa type for lower middle class creating the suburbia

• Villa form and style

◦ the villa-farmhouse divide is rooted in economy.
▪ Agriculture practices change slowly, low class of agricultural workers does halt change,
class pride makes change hard to be applie. Hence why farmhouse is an extremely
conservative type.
▪ villa is opposite, doesnt conform to customs
▪ Urban residences are characterised by a lot more conservative form than villas
▪ paradoxically villa type is both very conservative – functionalism, but very liberal – in
formalism as it is an appropriation of contemporary to its creation cultural trend. In that
way villa design is very similar to fashion design
▪ While form is not really fixed roman architecture gives two “groups” of most popular
plans
 •open-extended – typical for new settlements
◦ more experimental
◦ assymetric
◦ prone to refurbishment projects and additions
◦ represented by Pliny and Jefferson
◦ embraces nature
• compact-cubic – typical for more dense subrubia
◦ not fully indepdent from urban structures
◦ typical for period from before villa successful period
◦ in colonial typically included a veranda
◦ typically in roman tradition the side extending before a view would have a loggia
framed by two towers (e.g. Belvedere or Farnesina)
◦ anti-natural
▪ An alternative exists where villa collaborates with the landscape
• in renneisance villa, inspired by Pliny, Hadrian and Piazza Amerina of Sicly the vast
garden was a place where nature was segregated by architecture. The effect of these
where e.g. barcos (hunting parks), gardens. It boiled down to controlled and
unctrontrolled. It was a common practice to leave villa bland and limited and give
way to extensive landscape architecture
▪ Rennesaince ideals were hardly applicable to roman context.
• Due to lack of archeological evidence their ideas were very inaccurate. Roman villas
were assymetrical, sprawling, proportionality. This reduced the usability of the
classic formalistic division
th
▪ 18 century brought the italian villa type
• born of the picteresque genre in britain
• based in desired to create picture like images where the form corresponds with
nature heightening the atmosphere of the local environment
• inspired by contemporary landscape painitngs
• not italian, inspired by painter who worked there
• e.g. Phillip Webb's Red House

• Relationship of a villa with a view

◦ eexamples
▪ villa hadriana – vast, situated in a forested plane of a valley
▪ villa d'este – mountain slopes, view focuses on the far away mountains
▪ Sabine Farm – a narrow valley between two very sloped mountains
◦ Villa view is the essential part of villa myth
◦ Archetypical villa would overlook premises or domains of the tenant to highlight their
status, a form of looking at the urban life from a 3rd person perspective

• Villa Survival
▪ essetially both the open 'u' type and the square plan type survived over the years as by
the renneisance revival there were no clear examples of Roman villas which were only
excavated by archeologists
 • Villa as a sign. Villa uses a variety of signs to express its mythology
◦ Signifiers
▪ situation
▪ form
▪ details
◦ Families of signifiers
▪ natural
▪ anti-natural
▪ natural - anti-natural dialectics
▪ Power
▪ Regionalist signifiers
▪ classical signifiers (
◦ signifiers have symbollic value, in order to communicate themselves clearly the main
references are historical (Le Corb's virtuvian inspiration) and contemporary (Le Corb's
inspiration with ship railings) types
◦ desire to express connection to nature can be expressed with open design that appropriates
itself to the environment, using colours and textures inspired by nearest environment – e.g.
Palladian villas, Ames Gate Lodge
◦ separation from setting – compact form, cubic form, use of a podium, elevating living
quarters, proportionality, planarity, simplified textures in light colours which disguises its
construction and creates a sense of an external 'shield' – e.g. Le Corb's Villa Savoye
◦ Dialectic between the two - where the features are mixed, more common use than clear
types, - e.g. FLW's Running Water
◦ A common signifier of the dialectics is manmade forms replicating natural
forms/textures/colours. Roughly manipulated stone over highly finished masonry, terracotta,
fountain-grotto motif, reproduced stalactites, shingles
◦ signifiers of expression of power were adopted from medievial castles which lived on in
many renneisance and post-renneisance villas: Towers, irregular blocks, crennelations,
moats, drawbridges
◦ classical language signifiers were used as an expression of tenants profility in classical
studies
◦ popular signifiers are regionalist ones which adapt perculiar elements of traditional regional
design langauge like Palladio likening his loggias to Venetian, barchese, a local type of
agricultural sheds

bajes kwartier
bijmeermer redevelopment
G-Star Raw HQ
Nhow Amsterdam RAI Hotel
Byzantium
Stedelijk Base
Oodelskije Handelskade
Ij Oever
Ij Plein School and Gymnasium

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• Roman villa characterstics

◦ born of tiredness of romans with city life
◦ antithesis to urban life
◦ source of healthfullness and relax for the intellectuals and upper class
◦ based on toil of slaves and workers
◦ not accessible to women
◦ oppossition to rural worker's desire to go to city
◦ considered a source of 'assailment' of the peasants seekig help among the rich urban dwellers
◦ cato-ian desire for seeking pleasure in the toil
◦ addition of gymanasia and greek temple elements was fashionable (palestra, apodyterion,
peristylon, peripteros
◦ usually very critisised by roman agricultural writer (seneca, cicero, cato)
◦ different villa typologies were moree often combined than separarated
◦ 'Villa Boscoreale' is a case study of a traditional roman villa
• Virgil Representation
◦ more universal version of otium
◦ otium as a reward for hard work
◦ introduces the term arcadian
◦ fusion of otium and rustica villa
◦ otium comes from being free from distractions which can be executed via farming
◦ the beauty of nature is gained through frugality and hard labour
◦ political function – was a support for Meceanses land reform where the land was centralised
among big land owners
◦ repeated many times in the future
• Roman Villa Typology (Virgil is a abd surce as villa was not yet at peak popularity then so later 'de
re rustica' is more common)
◦ villa rustica – dormitory of formen and slaves. Elegant, with separate winter and summer
apartments, baths, promenades
◦ villa urbana – dwelling of the proprietor
◦ villa suburbana- primairly a retreat near the city, no argricultural purposes
◦ villa fracturia – processing and storage facility of wine, oil and grain, often incorporated into
villa rustica
◦ villa marittima – not agricultural, seashore villa
• Villa Boscoreale (mixed use) Case Study:
◦ no clear distiction between different typologies
◦ main court is a wine fermentation storage place
◦ no atrium or peristyle, entrance opens directly onto the wine court, which leads directly to
bedrooms
◦ bedroom windows open onto the courtyard to enable the proprietor to oversee work at all times
◦ east part was a bath and west was a wine and oil pressing room. East of the entrance there were
 barns and a kitchen, stables were below the kitchen
◦ summer dinning room has a window to the east and winter dinning room has a window to the
north
◦ early villas were tightly enclosed on a rectangular plan
• Separated villa urbana and rustica: San Rocco villa and Settefinestre villa
◦ san rocco
▪ two hillside platforms – upper villa urbana
▪ supplied by large barrel-vaulted cisterns
▪ same orientation bu different axes
▪ eparated by a closable roadway
▪ villa urbana made in city house style – axial sequence, columnar vestibule – square peristyle
– square tablinum (reception) – flanked by dinning room and exedera
▪ baths on the north side
▪ open porticos on south and west for vistas
◦ settefinestre
▪ urbana and rustica are connected at one corner
▪ urbana is built on a terrace to ocmpensate for the slope
▪ eastern third of the block is industrial
▪ north end of the section is baths
▪ southwest occupied by loggia for pleasure of the view
▪ domestic portion has an opening theough a porch onto loggia
▪ fifteen arch poritco below the loggia faces the garden
▪ garden is an eclosed bya turreted wall – fortified villa inspiration
▪ villa rustica had two large courts with slave quarters
▪ poorly preserved rustica
▪ both proprietors were constatnly involved in agricultural part, only partially like luxury villa
ideoogy
• Luxury villas, villa urbana
◦ majory from Boscoreale, Hernaculum and Pompeii
◦ rectangular plan
◦ main axis was usually: vestibule (sometimes) - atrium(entrance hall) – tablinum (sometimes) –
peristyleum (open court), collonade around the court – exedera or triclinum- gardens
(sometimes)
◦ main axis was often open to provide a perspective effect
◦ later began to evolve drastically like villa of the mysteries in pompeii
◦ Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii case study:
▪ supported on a high platform with an internal covered walkway
▪ external blind arched compensating fo the slope
▪ 3 exterior porticos
▪ land surveying system directed orientation
▪ the sequence is reversed – this becomes the distinguishing factor for house and villa for
Virtuvius
▪ dinnign room overlooks the bay
▪ other example: Oplontis in Pompeii
▪ a modyfication of the campanian city house – the last sequence room opens outwards,
embracing the setting
 ▪ site is characterised by a natural ampithetre with a plain
ringed by mountains and forest. Hill are coveredwith
vineyards

◦ by late 1st century otium villa became fully dominant

◦ the villas would typically 'grow by addition' rather than be designed with a plan
◦ Hadrian Villa is the locus classicus of the early imperial, but Laurentine and Tusci villas are also
important
◦ Laurentine Villa Case Study:

▪ less modern – based on pompeian urban house

▪ atrium-porticus – court – cavaedium - dinning room – openning towards shore
▪ porticus has a distinctive d-shape
▪ villa marittima
▪ dinning room has bedrooms access, one has an apsed window, steam ehating equipped
▪ gymnasium (for servants) and steam rooms

◦ Tusci Villa Case Study:

▪ .
▪ just below summit of one of apennine range mountains
▪ faces south which provides good sun in afternoon through main portico
 ▪ standard sequence
▪ subterrenan elements that preserve low temperature (inspiration for many later villas e.g.
Monticello)
▪ hippodrome – elaborate garen shaped like circus
▪ like in all others – planning was done around vistas
◦ *gaul britain and germany portico villa type
◦ post 2nd century the knowledge of italian villas is limited in favour of provincial villas
◦ such was the myth, that was the greater influence in post roman villa architecture. Nevertheless
romana architecture form survived in meditarennan archiecture which enabled its survival

• Medici Villa
◦ no roman villa survived roman collapse
◦ population clustered around bishop and lord strongholds
◦ 5-10th century architeture knowledge is extremely limited for secular architecture
◦ period of no urban growth
◦ feudal lords turned in buregoise
◦ no need for new architecture as old architecture suymbollised stability
◦ rekindled interest in classics stimulated change (influncedd e.g. by Petrarch come back to
countryside peans literature)
◦ petrarch mixes medievala and classic influences
◦ revival of suburban villa
◦ mixed classic and medieval signifiers
◦ castle traditions coem from the fact that country was still unsafe from bandits and wars were
often
◦ Michelozzo built first Medici villas in Trebbio and Cafaggiolo
◦ around the feudalism dies off and serfes were freed but the rich buyed off their properties which
restarted collecitvisation
◦ villa culture thus restarts
◦ 'all antica emerges from Michelozzo's experiemntations – attempts at reviving classical
architecture
◦ Fiesole villa introduces renneisance formal garden
◦ Alberti criticises medieval influences as to fight the oppresivness of such architecture, not in
line with renneisance intellectualism
◦ representatives: Peruzzi, Michelozzo, Poggio, Alberti, Vasari, Sangallo younger and older,
Giulio Romano, Michelangelo
◦ this villa style was cristalised into italian villa style which was popular in GB and USA
territories to represent romantic life taking the Medicean villa into the neogothical tradition.
◦ This is ironic as an inherently classical form became a part of an anti-classical taste
◦ later styles became less classical influenced as Lorenzo di Medici who was among winning
guelphs became influential and wanted to shape world according to his own views
◦
• Palladio Villa
◦ best represented in 4 books on architecture
◦ most imitated style of all time
◦ Venetian culture spread inwards into italy (terraforma) initially to create buffer zone from
 Venice and create a food supply but eventually enabled venetian aristocracy to realise the villa
culture
◦ in renneisance villa was the whole estate, the building of concern was named casa di villa
◦ use of local barchese – long barns that open towards a central piazza under underhanging roofs
◦ vileggattura – country sojourn
◦ limited adoption of refined features but generally primairly for business
◦ the second type of palladian villas was the castle-villa (e.g. Barco della Regina near Treviso)
◦ Barco dell Regina cas study:
▪ high surrounding crenealted walls
▪ corner towers
▪ big central gateway
▪ agricultural but the residence the centre and agricultural elements were hidden away
◦ Villa Porto-Colleoni case study
▪ purest castle villa
▪ axis oriented large gothic windows
▪ ground floor loggia framed by towers
▪ ghibeline symbolism
▪ small court
◦ castle villas survived way into lifetime of Palladio
◦ villa giustiniana – best example of all antica villa in veneto
▪ 2 storey loggia crowned by a pediment
▪ basic cubic form
◦ by early 16th century due to opposition of cambai leauge to terraforma veneto architectural
tradition died off which coincided with fall of renneisane in rome(1527 french invasion). Thus
roman architects flooded to veneto
◦ jacopo sansovino and michele samicheli were leading figures in palladian renneisance
◦ main mecenases of the movements were rich venetian particians who didnt get to build up yet
on their lands and rich aristocrats who wanted to upgrade from meieval castles
◦ when traditional venetan merchant economy failed land became the best investment
◦ villa garzoni at pontescale
▪ belonged to land reclamation magnate
▪ first comission of sansovino
▪ shows how he is learning venetian tradition
▪ roman-venetian mix
◦ serlio introduced high quality printed image
◦ serlio research mainly focuses on french country architecture of different social classes
◦ palladio villa design was the most balanced and populist thus the most successful
◦ villa lonedo
▪ sammicheli inspired
▪ plain and simple
▪ slightly irregular because it accomodates existing farm buildings
▪ castello wall perimeter
▪ beautiful river vista
▪ beginning of the development of palladian philosophy of vista driven design – he
particulalry advised avoiding builidng in narrow valleys
 ◦ villa barbaro
▪ developed palladianism
▪ principal features of agricultural region architecture – barchese and dovecot
▪ dovecot is in pavilions at both end of the composition
▪ barchese is an arcade flanking the central block
▪ dwelling block is distinguished by stuccoed roman temple front. Palladio used it because he
believed that it announces the building with grandeur
▪ villa is situated on a slight slope
▪ features a paolo veronese salone decorated with his frescos romanticising roman ruins
▪ inegrated water system connecting land irrigation, ponds and kitchen
▪ paolo veronese painted a conservative contemporary villa which underscores the
conservative nature of villa culture
◦ villa emo fanzolo
▪ between barbaro and lonedo
▪ reduced ornaments
▪ unframed windows
▪ Palladio intended side loggia-barchese to be usable rather than aesthetic and double
dovecots, however its questionable
◦ villa repeta
▪ dedicated to rich repeta family
▪ modest as family sympathised with protestants
▪ rooms dedicated to continence, justie and other virtues, proprietor would lodge people in
rooms which suited their character most
◦ La Rotonda
▪ Paolo Almerico owned
▪ more of a small palace, suburbian
▪ clear mix of roman, renneisance and christian-sacral
• Palladian and post-palladian villa culture
◦ villa life was an example of rennaisance renovatio of ancient culture
◦ the philosophy shifted to a more materialistic and hedonistic one
◦ restorative relief from city evils, chance to hunt and perform heallthy work, not really self-
improvement
◦ five villa classes were considered then:
▪ signori villa
▪ modern gentlemen villa
▪ merchant villa
▪ artisian villa
▪ peasant villa
◦ artificial classficifaction, 4th and 5th classes are made up
◦ proprietor would depend on massarro, bailif, for villa management
◦ proprietors cheated the working class only ocassionally appreciaitng the economci adavantage
of collaboration
◦ roman otium was a retirement from duties for self study, renneisance otio was sloth and a
condition of urban life which was to be escaped from
◦ reaction to renneisance urban formal appearance
 ◦ literature commonly justified grain hoarding practices of agriculture villa owners
◦ class conflicts fueled redevelopment of the agriculturla villa
◦ signoris would often just watch peasant paricipate in villa chores rather than take part
◦ northern influence villinised the peasant, only being nice to them for benefit
◦ anti-terraforma coalition war brought an idealisaiton of the peasant because they were
instrumental in reviving the republic
◦ women continued to be opressed and inexistent in the renneisance as in antiquit, prevalent
misogonysm
◦ padrone was insecure and feared about losing power to everyone, peasant, women, onther
padrones, city dwellers
• Dictionary
◦
• .