Same House, Centuries Apart?

Colin Rowe’s, Mathematics of the Ideal Villa. La Malcontenta and Villa Stein. Corbusier and Palladio. While their architecture is manifested in two very distinct ways in two very different times, a fascinating similarity between them is the idea to design a utilitarian home. Corbusier believed a home should be a machine for living. Clean lines, ribbon windows, and free facade describe his architecture. Palladio believed a home in an agricultural setting should be rational, where all the functions necessary for living could occur in a tightly knit organism. Harmonic proportions, classic purity, and humanist grandeur describe his architecture.

To Colin Rowe’s point in some of his most famous writing, geometries and proportions are what tie these two villas together, even though they were conceived centuries apart. While I think that meaningful architecture must have more content than just geometry, I think geometry is one of the strongest tools architects use to set their architecture apart as an art, designed for purposes beyond necessity: to provide a higher, more pleasing quality of live to those experiencing it.