Geometry and Proportions from Palladio to Le Corbusier: C.Rowe’s Mathematics of the Ideal Villa.

University of Central Lancashire

Geometry and Proportions from Palladio to Le Corbusie r: C.Rowe’s Mathematics of the Ideal Villa.

Aryan Tehrani

AO1005: Architectural History and Theory Ronny Ford January 2013 Student Number: 20554760 Word Count (Excluding Bibliography): 2029

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Geometry and proportions from Palladio to Le Corbusier: C.Rowe’s Mathematics of the ideal villa.

INTRODUCTION

First published in the Architectural Review in 1947, Colin Rowe‟s essay „The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa‟ embodied a re-evaluation of modern Architecture.

Rowe‟s essays toyed with the notion that modern architecture is not only dictated by the advances in modern technology but is also dependent on the lessons and ideas provided from an historical context. To emphasise this point, Rowe focused on the pinnacles of both modern and classical architecture and set about exploring their many similarities and differences, especially in regards to geometry and proportion. Rowe employs a language of enquiry surrounding the importance of geometry and proportion in the ideal villa and interrogates both the ideas and works of the mannerist/renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and the Swiss born modernist Le Corbusier. In his paper Rowe looks at views on Palladio‟s use of geometry and proportions and uses them to outline major similarities and differences in Le Corbusier‟s work. In particular he compares Andrea Palladio‟s Villa Foscari in Malcontenta (Fig 1) and Le Corbusier‟s Villa Stein at Garches (Fig 2). In most cases Rowe discovers that both villas adhere both to certain mathematical formulas and geometric and proportional principles.

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Figure 1 Villa Malcontenta (Foscari). Andrea Palladio, 1550-601

Figure 2 Villa Stein. Le Corbusier, 1927 2

Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and other Essays. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1976. p.19.

2 Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, p.20.

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GEOMETRY AND PROPORTIONS The importance of mathematic and geometric principles has always been a prominent factor within the field of architecture. Also, the subject of proportional harmonies has always been a subject of phenomenal importance when one regards architecture in an historical context.

Le Corbusier‟s obsession with the use of mathematics and geometry is evident in his 1923 book „Towards a new Architecture‟. He postulates; „For all these things-axes, circles, right angles-are geometrical truths, and give results that our eye can measure and recognize; whereas otherwise there would be only chance, irregularity and capriciousness. Geometry is the language of man.‟

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It is here that Le Corbusier articulates the ideal geometry of modernism. Le Corbusier states that architectural order can be imposed through the implementation of a unit measurement. Le Corbusier was also a great believer in looking to the past to draw influences and ideas that he could combine with modern technologies and use in his architecture. In his own words: „Is it not true that most architects today have forgotten that great architecture is rooted in the very beginnings of humanity and that it is a direct function of human instinct? ‟

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Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. New York: Dover Publications, 1986.

Print. p.72.

4 Ibid.

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In the middle of the twentieth century, Le Corbusier devised and patented a new style of relating the proportions of the human body to that of his architecture. These ideas were published in his 1942 book, Le Modulor. Le Modulor being an amalgamation of the words meaning „unit of measurement‟ module and „golden section‟ section d’or. Le Corbusier‟s main influences for this system were the works of Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci and Leone Battista Alberti as they had also published attempts to relate anthropological proportions to ideal Architecture. The Modular demonstrated the view that the mathematics and proportions of the human body can be used to create Architecture that is both ideal in its aesthetic and its function. Le Corbusier implemented its use in many of his buildings, the most high profile of which is the Unité d'Habitation in Marseilles, France. Even though Le Corbusier devised these methods to improve future architecture; the ideas present in Le Modulor have their roots in historical theories of geometry and proportion. In fact, some of the main aspects of Le Modulor are Le Corbusier‟s interpretation of existing historical theories, such as the Golden Section. Le Corbusier‟s illustration of the modulor concept is shown in figure 3.

As Le Corbusier was such a radical pioneer of the modernist movement, it is all to easy to overlook the fact that the ideas and theories that influence some of his greatest works are just as inspired by historical contexts than modern philosophies or breakthroughs in technology. In Towards a New Architecture, the reader discovers that whilst Le Corbusier is setting out the guidelines for what he deems to be the future of modern architecture, he is also attempting to delve into the past, to seek some of the long forgotten truths and to implement some of these into his architecture. The most prominent of these is how to obtain and use geometrical and proportional systems in his buildings. Figure 4 shows Villa Schwob, this is the first manifestation of these

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principles that we see in Le Corbusier‟s Architecture. for As Rowe describes in „The Mathematics of the ideal villa‟, distinct parallels can be drawn between the work and theories of Le Corbusier and the renaissance movement, in particular Andrea Palladio.

Figure 3 Le Corbusier’s Modulor 5

Le Corbusier, The Modulor: A Harmonious Measure to the Human Scale , Universally Applicable to Architecture and Mechanics. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T Press, 1968, p.65. This illustration also appears in John Summersons 1963 book, ‘The Classical Language of Architecture’.

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Figure 4. Le Corbusier, Villa Schwob, 1916. 6

THE REGULATING LINE In Towards a New Architecture Le Corbusier talks of „An Inevitable element of Architecture‟ 7 , He is of course, describing the „tracé régulateur‟, the regulating line.

He continues: „An inevitable element of architecture. The necessity for order. The regulating line is a guarantee

against

willfulness.

It brings satisfaction to

the understanding.

The

regulating line is a means to an end: it is not a recipe. Its choice and the modalities of expression given to it are an integral part of architectural creation.‟

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The result of the application of the regulating line restored a sense of harmony and control that had not been present in force since the works of the great renaissance architects Alberti and Palladio. According to Le Corbusier, „The regulating line is an

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Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and other essays, p.53 Le Corbusier, Towards A New Architecture, p.68

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Ibid.

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assurance against capriciousnessâ€&#x; 9 . He goes on to argue that the Greeks and Egyptians used the system to employ a sense of order and rhythm in their architecture. Its function is to provide proportional harmonies between aspects of the architecture that have the potential to enforce a sense of order to the task. This sense of proportional and compositional harmonies has always been fundamental in Le Corbusierâ€&#x;s work, even when he published the plans and elevations for the 1917 villa Schwob in Towards a New Architecture, he published them with the Regulating lines drawn onto the elevations. (Fig 3).

Figure 3 Villa Schwob, Le Corbusier, 1927. 10

THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY In his essay Rowe emphasizes the idea that architecture is a science that relies on the influences of both external sources and the advances in modern technology for the 9 10

Le Corbusier, Towards A New Architecture, p.75 Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, p.81.

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genesis of new ideas and innovations. Contemporary advances in technology are constantly being adopted and manipulated to develop the many options obtainable in architecture. To Rowe, architecture is in a state of perpetual shift, constantly being molded and supplemented by the theories and hypotheses of modern sciences, whilst drawing influence from the ancient lessons learned from history and art. For Le Corbusier, these advances in contemporary technology where embodied in his manifesto „Five points towards a new architecture‟. This manifesto was set to reevaluate the world of modern architecture. As he writes in the manifesto, the five points, „concern architectural facts that imply an entirely new kind of building, from the dwelling house to palatial edifices‟11 .

THE USE OF MATHEMATICS AND GEOMETRIC PRINCIPLIES IN THE VILLA FOSCARI AND VILLA STEIN In the Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, Rowe sets the works of Le Corbusier and Palladio against each other in order to exploit the similarities and differences in the way that the architects approach the use of geometry and proportions in their villas.

Rowe begins by comparing Le Corbusier‟s Villa Stein/ de Monzie (1927) with Palladio‟s Villa Malcontenta (1550-60). This is a very unusual and ambitious comparison; Rowe himself concedes, „These are two buildings which, in their forms and evocations, are superficially so entirely unlike that to bring them together would

Le Corbusier, Five Points Toward A New Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1970.

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seem to be facetious‟.12 However, he does so in a manner that was previously inconceivable.

In regards to the structural differences between the two villas, Rowe highlights that whereas Palladio obsessed about finding „structural reasons‟13 for the placement of the walls and the „planning symmetries‟14 , Le Corbusier used the structure „as a basis cfor the formal elements of design‟15 . Here Rowe is emphasizing the differences in the way the two architects approach their architecture. Another structural element that Rowe focuses on is the issue in flexibility of plan.

Palladio‟s system forces him to

replicate the same floor plan for every floor, however Le Corbusier‟s point support plan offers him plenty of flexibility when it comes to the arrangement of the plan. A principal point of difference is to be found in the realization of the roof, at the Malcontenta it takes on a pyramidal form, which maximizes the open space that adds to the feeling of grandeur, whereas at the Villa Stein it is composed of a flat slab of concrete, this has a detrimental effect on the volume of open space available.

One aspect that unites these two greats of architecture is what seems to be their natural affinity with the harmonies attributed with architectural proportions. In the first of Palladio‟s four books on architecture, Palladio states; „Beauty will result from the form and correspondence of the whole, with respect to the several parts, of the parts with regard to each other and other these again to the whole: that the structure mat appear an entire and complete body, wherein each

Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and other essays. Cambridge, , p.3.

Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and other essays, p.4.

14 Ibid.

15Ibid.

12 13

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member agrees with the other, and all necessary to compose what you intend to form‟.16 Le Corbusier, through his passion for the architecture of the ancients and the renaissance had also developed an infatuation with geometry and proportions. Rowe uses these facts to identify another difference between the two. Even though both Architects utilize and condone the use of geometrical and proportional harmonies in their villas, Rowe highlights that; “In the Malcontenta geometry is diffused throughout the internal volumes of the entire building, at Garches it seems only to reside in the block as a whole and In the disposition of its supports”.17 Rowe also articulates that „Le Corbusier is the more aggressive‟

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when it

comes to his „adherence to mathematical formulae‟19 , this is shown by his imposition of regulating lines and the golden section on his elevations. Within the field of geometry, there lies another difference between Palladio and Le Corbusier, which is also noticed by Rowe. When the drawings of both of the villas are regarded, it can be observed that whilst Le Corbusier tends to impose his geometrical annotations of the elevation (façade), However Palladio draws the geometrical truths onto the plans, this places a different emphasis on the meanings of the buildings. The plan for Malcontenta is a pleasure to behold, a perfect blend of geometric truths and elegant simplicity (Fig. 5).

For Malcontenta,

the „plan may be seen as an exhibition of natural

Andrea Palladio, The Four Books on Architecture. New York: Dover Publications, 1986. p.b.

17 Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, p.8.

18 Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, p.9.

19 Ibid.

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beauty…unadulterated‟20 , however for Stein the facades are „complicated‟21 and „adulterated‟22 . This implies that for Palladio, the plan is the true essence of the building, for him the symmetrical and geometrical intricacy portrays a serene simple elegance within the villa. For Le Corbusier, the complicated façade that has been dictated by geometric and proportional harmonies and gives the villa a completely different feel.

Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, p.9.

Ibid.

22 Ibid.

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Figure 5 Villa Foscari, Andrea Palladio 23

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Andrea Palladio, Il Secondo Libro, The Four Books On Architecture, p.XII 13

CONCLUSION

I am in no position to offer a concluding opinion on this topic, however I do not believe that Colin Roweâ€&#x;s take on the issue is a definitive one. By focusing on Andrea Palladio and Le Corbusier, Rowe is introducing and reinforcing the imperative notion that just as Palladio and Le Corbusier did in their respective periods, we must continue to influence the future by looking back into the past. These two great architects, I believe were chosen by Rowe as a subject greater scrutiny because they both shared the notion of looking to historical models and comparing them with their own ideals along with the contemporary technologies to contribute to the perception of the ideal.

However, I believe that Roweâ€&#x;s essay on the mathematics of the ideal villa is not only about the geometrical and proportional harmonies that must be present in great architecture, but about modern architecture itself. It can be seen as a modern reevaluation of modern architecture using the past as a historical precedent.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ackerman, James S. Palladio. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966.

Blackwell, William. Geometry in Architecture. New York: Wiley, 1984.

Elam, Kimberly. Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.

Gelernter, Mark. Sources of Architectural Form: A Critical History of Western Design Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.

Hildner, Jef7rey. Garches 1 2 3 4: Remembering the Mathematics of the Ideal Villa : an Essay on Le Corbusier's 1927 Villa De Monzie/stein. Boston, 2005.

Le Corbusier/ Jeanneret, Pierre. “Five Points Towards a New Architecture�. (1926) Reprinted by Cambridge, MIT Press, 1970.

Le, Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. New York: Dover Publications, 1986.

Le, Corbusier. The Modulor: A Harmonious Measure to the Human Scale, Universally Applicable to Architecture and Mechanics. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press, 1968.

Palladio, Andrea. The Four Books of Architecture. New York: Dover Publications, 1965.

Park, Steven. Le Corbusier Redrawn: The Houses. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.

Rowe, Colin. The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, and Other Essays. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1976.

Summerson, John. The Classical Language of Architecture. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1966.

Unwin, Simon. Analysing Architecture: The Architecture Notebook. London: Routledge, 1997.

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