P Week

All of architecture thus far has been a process. From Stonehenge, through Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Renaissance, and on until today—when we can build towering skyscrapers that seemed impossible, if even dreamed up by those creating the first expressions of architecture. We realized that “Architecture is shelter, but it is also symbol and a form of communication” (Roth 2007), just as anything designed is not only what it is, but also represents something else as well. Today, we have chairs from plastic and can use materials not available in our own immediate environment.



It could be said that all through time there is one greater design process, of which we take part in as we design a portal, a place for a leaf, a shelter, an environment. As we design, then, we must be careful to always improve upon what has already been designed—whether to help the environment or accommodate people better. They must all have “commodity, firmness, and delight” (Roth 2007).

In this way, we become true professionals, with honed, valuable skills. Our work should be neat and clean, carefully executed. Our craft should be impeccable.

In Italy, at the rise of the Renaissance, merchants were taking over as being the high-ranking professionals. It was because of this that secular architecture began getting noticed as being fully worthy of the ornamentation of churches, which is illustrated by the Villa Capra (Villa Rotunda).

“The Villa Capra, called the Villa Rotunda because it focused not on a single entrance façade but on a cylindrical rotunda at the center” (Roth 2007) was a great example of the rise of secular architecture. Also during this time, villas of the wealthy were often stretched across the landscape, so that from the approaching visitor’s perspective, the structure would seem larger and grander.

These villas were, to some degree, on the periphery of the cities, where “Venetian nobles used the funds made in maritime commerce to buy up and reclaim low-lying, marshy lands that had been agriculturally unproductive for centuries” (Roth 2007). They served as an escape for the wealthy and a social destination for the privileged. Along the periphery of these houses would be gardens, extending the house outward, also making it seem grander. This was in the style of the opulence of Rome—tricking the visitor into thinking something was even more than it was, even if what it was actually was grand.

In Palladio’s portfolio lays many villas. In some way, he recreated the villa, building it for wealthy merchants on their farms which fed the busy cities. As students and professionals, we should strive to create impressive portfolios of work.

Roth, Leland, M. (2007). Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.