Architecture Master Thesis

THE POETICS OF THE RATIONAL SETTING THE SCENE: THE INSTITUTION IN THE LANDSCAPE

E L I Z A A L E X A N D R A S E R BA N

ARCHITECTURE AND THE GARDEN SUBURB

Fig 1: Concept Drawing [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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Graeme Hutton G.hutton@dundee.ac.uk Charles Rattray c.rattray@dundee.ac.uk University of Dundee School of the Environment - Architecture

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ABSTRACT

“Institutions, which formerly enjoyed a representative and symbolic architecture, are now anonymous buildings immersed in the fabric of the city or even hidden in the landscape.” (Matt, 1996 : 169) Buildings relate to the natural landscape and develop from the topography of the place. This relation can expand the territory of the geometric realm of architecture or it can be a mediation between architecture and nature. Classical French gardens, defined by axes, radiate the controlling power of geometry into the distant landscape. Likewise, the Italian Renaissance Villegiatura defined by the concept of rational stage management are organized according to a similar geometric matrix as a way of emphasizing the identity of the architectural form in dialog with the landscape.

This thesis explores the embedment of identity of the institution in relation to the landscape and the role of topography in morphing the building’s atmosphere and legibility in defining an architecture that has the capacity to re-establish the locality’s sense of community and provide an active and engaging social space for the public. It represents a study on how architecture relates to landscape through geometry, form and scale in light of contemporary interpretations of topology.

Fig 2: Strategy Section [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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INTRODUCTION

Suburban developments that formerly represent the ideal place to live, close to the countryside and away from the noise and pollution within the cities, have extended at a very rapid pace leading to a sprawl of houses over the natural landscape. They are in need of ‘centres’ that articulate the space and help to develop a place and a community. Leon Krier (1998) states that suburbs are identified with only one aspect of the daily life, the private sphere, res privata or the more modest private activities of housing, commerce and industry. They lack the public side which is characteristic of public buildings, res publica, which express qualities of institutions – dignity, solemnity, grandeur. He argues that the true city is formed when both the public and the private sides coexist and in order to achieve that there is a need for an “urbanisation of the suburbs”.

“It is impossible to conceive of isolated buildings cut off from the world. Whatever their size, buildings influence the world. They must be conceived as part of the whole. Buildings are never neutral; they always have either a positive or negative influence. They are active.” (Krier, 1988 : 31) (Fig. 3)

Public buildings have always occupied some of the most important locations within the planning of a city or a village. They were at all times situated in discourse with one another and with the city, but more importantly in great connection with the landscape which provided them with a stage for political, economic and architectural interaction. Robert McCarter (2012) states that a profound piece of architecture always enhances, clarifies and strengthens the reading of its surrounding landscape and gives it specific meaning.

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Fig 3: Krier’s Vision of the True City [source: www.architectural-review.com, accessed: 01/03/2015 ]

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The main focus of this study is to explore the connection between architecture and landscape, topology and topography, institution and community through a series of analytical precedents that investigate the notions of natural and manmade, formal and informal geometry and, last but not least, integration and reaction to the overall urban, rural or suburban context. This exploration is reinforced by the individual design project conducted in relation with the masterplan group project, which looks at the development of a new community of 2500 houses on Broomhall, Dunfermline as part of the future expansion of Dunfermline, promoted by Stirling Developments.

The proposed project investigates the identity of an educational institution within a newly developed community and the relationship with the existing agricultural landscape. The project encapsulates the ambitions to design a building that retains the memory of the place and enhances its identity within the overall masterplan. It represents a tool of investigation of the proposed recreational and educational green network within the masterplan and enriches the legibility of the new development through defining places of urban presence within the mass of suburban housing.

Fig 4: Conceptual Strategy [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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LANDSCAPE INTERPRETATIONS THE HIDDEN GEOMETRY WITHIN NATURE

The word landscape has been opened to multiple definitions, debates and interpretations and has been subjected to human conceptions and representations in various disciplines from garden design to literature, art and architecture. The popular conception of the landscape that is reflected in dictionaries conveys both a particular and a general meaning, the particular referring to an area of the Earth’s surface and the general being that which can be seen by an observer. Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and national identity. The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions, it is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives. (Landscape Explained, 2016) In architecture there are constant debates and theories on its definition. While some people completely reject the landscape as scenery, others recognize the relation between natural and man-made landscape and its implications.

“We tend to underestimate the significance of landscape and man-made settings on human character, behaviour and thought. Landscape is usually regarded as a mere empty stage for events or an object of natural or man-made beauty, aesthetic admiration and spiritual contemplation. ” (McCarter, 2012: 365) (Fig 4 ) Through his statement, McCarter makes reference to landscape not only as a perception inhibitor but more than that as influential mediator on human behaviour through what psychologists call ‘situational personality’. Landscape is thus a fundamental component in the way humans experience a place, representing the contextual background for buildings to develop and mature through a continuous temporal distortion of materiality, structure, form, space and ultimately identity. The key in retaining the identity of the architecture is to envision it in a close relationship with the landscape that defines it to the point that one cannot function and be inhabited in their totality without each other.

Fig 5:

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Landscape as Experience - Concept Drawing [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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While Robert McCarter (2012) acknowledges the difference between natural landscape and manmade landscape, J.B Jackson (1984) rejects this and presents the idea that landscape is a variant of the concept of nature untouched by the human agency; he sees it as a composition of man-made spaces imposed on the natural environment, emphasising on the artificial and synthetic quality of space. (Fig 7 ) “…landscape is not a scenery, it is not a political unit; it is really no more than a collection, a system of man-made spaces on the surface of the Earth. Whatever its shape or size, it is never simply a natural space, a feature of the environment; it is always artificial, always synthetic, always subject to sudden or unpredictable change.” (J.B Jackson, 1984 : 156) (Fig 8 )

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Fig 7: The Grid of the Great American Plains [source: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov, accessed: 03/04/2015 ]

A N A LYS I S Fig 8: Broadacre City Model (F.L. Wright) superimposed on Broomhall, Dunfermline [Architecture and The Garden City, 2015]

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To gain a further understanding of how landscape is approached by each Jackson and McCarter, the context is enlarged beyond the scale of the individual building to a more macro scale. (Fig 9 )

McCarter identifies two types of man-made landscape in his theory; one implies a more rational and formal approach in terms of master-planning and the second one embraces the idea of natural patterns of development in relation to the topology of the place. Space, geometry and form are the common traits that both landscape concepts describe and highlight in relation to their culture, history, topography, people any many other decisive factors. “The architecture of the traditional urban centres of Europe has largely developed as a continuation of the man-made geometric configurations of villages, towns and cities, whereas Nordic architecture continues to be predominantly a response to the topological natural landscape. It is conceivable that differences in these primary types of landscape have eventually developed different architectural sensibilities in terms of space, geometry and form. “(McCarter 2012 : 369) (Fig. 10 )

Fig 9: House - Masterplan - City [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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CENTERS

: 2.450m

Oslo

Gothenburg

2.100 000 m2 Pop: 3.2 mil Pedestrian network lenght: 2.460m

980.000 m2 Pop: 920.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 2.450m

1.270.000 m2 Pop: 440 Pedestrian network len

EUROPEAN CITY CENTERS

In comparison with McCarter’s theory on landscape and symbolical interpretation of the relation between architecture and landscape, Jackson’s attempt to historicize the landscape as a concept repreGothenburg sents a more pragmatic response to its spatial and temporal dimension. His study proposes that are three phases or distinct concepts of landscape that emerged over the history.

1.270.000 m2 Pop: 440.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 1.360m

The medieval landscape which he calls Landscape One, has been characterised by mobility, a mixing of uses, and a lack of clearly articulated symbolic meaning. (Day, 2004 cited in Abruzzo et al., 2004) The configuration was formed as a direct response to the medieval life where security and unity were the space, pattern of the streets and height of the Oslosome of the most important factors that influenced Gothenburg fortified walls. (Fig 11 )t Copenhagen Amsterdam Lubeck 980.000 m2 Pop: 920.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 1.150 000 m2 Pop: 1.352.450m mil Pedestrian network lenght: 3.200m

1.270.000 m2 Pop: 440.000 Pedestrian networkPop: lenght: 1.360m 1.190.000m2 720.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 2.800m

1.490.000 m2 Pop: 220 Pedestrian network len

Fig 10: European City Configurations [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2015 ]

Lubeck 1.490.000 m2 Pop: 220.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 1.000m

: 2.800m

Pop: 3.2 mil

Hamburg

EUROPEAN CITY CENTERS Stockholm Amsterdam

Malmo Lubeck

1.250 000 m2 Pop: 1.2 mil 1.190.000m2 Pop:network 720.000 lenght: 2.300m Pedestrian Pedestrian network lenght: 2.800m

590.000m2 Pop: 450.000 1.490.000 m2 Pop:network 220.000lenght: 1.600m Pedestrian Pedestrian network lenght: 1.000m

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Rouen

Oslo

Gothenburg

980.000 m2 Pop: 920.000

1.270.000 m2 Pop: 440.000

Hamburg Rouen 2.100 000 m2 Pop: 3.2 m 220.000 m2 Pop: 110 Pedestrian network leng Pedestrian network le

: 2.460m

: 3.2 mil mil k lenght: 2.460m ght: 2.460m

EUROPEAN CITY CENTERS

Landscape Two, first being conceptualised in the Renaissance, was developed around the notions of Hamburgwithin nature and rational urban landscape.

Oslo Unlike Landscape One, which mixed all kind Gothenburg geometry of uses and spaces together, Landscape Two insists on spaces which are clearly identifiable and devoted 2.100 000 m2 Pop: 3.2 mil 980.000 m2 Pop: 920.000 1.270.000 m2 Pop: 44 toPedestrian a single purpose.

(Jackson, on thenetwork legibility of an2.450m ordered environment and network lenght: 2.460m1984). The emphasis Pedestrian lenght: Pedestrian network le on clearly defined symbolic hierarchies are best captured in the design of the Italian Arcadian Villas.

Set on the landscape theatre of Florence, on the contours of Tuscan topography, this is the place from where the Renaissance started to expand its influence over Europe. Jackson finds the apotheosis of this landscape in the manifestation of the grid system imposed over many European cities. (Fig 12 ) EUROPEAN CITY CENTERS While Landscape Two is highly praised by Jackson, he considers that the grid system and the geometry superimposed on the natural topography of place should mergeHamburg with the principles described in O Landscape One. This formalises a definition for Landscape Three which represents a paradigm of the perception of landscape that “capitalises on the flexible, and disinterested, of the grid.

9 2.100 000generic m2 Pop:form 3.2 mil Pedestrian network 2.460m P The grid is now a regulating line for unlimited potential.� (Day, 2004, cited in Abruzzo et lenght: al., 2004 : 96) EUROPEAN CITY CENTERS EUROPEAN CITY CENTERS This last concept is in a developing and exploratory state, it takes important historical lessons and is in a continuous search of representation.

Copenhagen Oslo

Amsterdam Gothenburg

Lubeck

1.150 000 m2 Pop: 1.35 mil 980.000 m2 Pop: 920.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 3.200m Pedestrian network lenght: 2.450m

1.190.000m2 Pop: 720.000 1.270.000 m2 Pop: 440.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 2.800m Pedestrian network lenght: 1.360m

1.490.000 m2 Pop: 22 Pedestrian network le

Oslo Oslo

Gothenburg Gothenburg

980.000 m2 Pop: 920.000 980.000 m2 Pop: 920.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 2.450m Pedestrian network lenght: 2.450m

1.270.000 m2 Pop: 440.000 1.270.000 m2 Pop: 440.000 Pedestrian network lenght: 1.360m Pedestrian network lenght: 1.360m Copenhagen

A

1.150 000 m2 Pop: 1.35 mil Pedestrian network lenght: 3.200m

1 P

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Stockholm

Malmo

Rouen

1.250 000 m2 Pop: 1.2 mil

590.000m2 Pop: 450.000

220.000 m2 Pop: 11

Fig 11: Landscape One - Rouen, France - The Medieval Town [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2015 ]

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Fig 12:

Landscape Two - Amsterdam, The Netherlands [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2015 ]

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An interpretation of Landscape Three, described by Jackson, is materialised in the development of Florence from a medieval transcription of the ‘divine’ relation between nature and architecture to a scientific, cultural and rational city. There is a clear discourse and juxtaposition of two historical periods that have shaped the master-plan of Florence, which lead to the development of two types of grid systems, one that follows the direction of the landscape and one that is orientated according to the original settlement.

The original Roman centre of Florence (59BC) is rectangular and as a templum (holy plan) orientated in the traditional north south direction. The city lies in the valley of the River Arno, which flows in the northwest-southeast direction. This layout is emphasized by the layout of the Roman settlement, which is laid out on the entire valley as a framework. The cardo maximus (axis) of this settlement grid is at right angles to the river, while the decumanus maximus (transverse axis) runs parallel to it. These orthogonal axis form the basis of the landscape divisions in the valley. (Stenbergen, 1996) (Fig 14 ) The city has adopted changes with time and, in later city planning, the landscape grid has been rendered into streets and became part of the city’s road infrastructure which lead to the loss of Florence’s autonomy in relation to the landscape. Starting with the 13th century, the city began to morph significantly in terms of planning and new buildings leading to the construction of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore’ or Filippo Brunelleschi’s ‘Duomo di Firenze’ which will become the reference point in the ‘theatrical’ development of the countryside in relation to the city of Florence. (Fig 13 ) What is constant in the two interpretations of landscape by McCarter and Jackson is the acknowledgement of geometry as coordinator and the juxtaposition between man-made and natural topography.

They both identify the importance of the principles developed by the Renaissance in terms of proportions, form and space as governing rules for landscape and architecture, these interpretations become spatial and temporal influences for modern landscape definitions and discoveries.

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Fig 13: *Arno Valley, Florence; the cardo (axis)and decumanus maximus (transverse axis) follow the main natural axis of the valley. The old city of Florence follows the directions of the compass rose as a templum. [source: Steenbergen, C. (1996). Architecture and Landscape: accessed: 02/04/2015 ]

Fig 14:

Scheme of the continuous city walls and city layout. In the angle between 1 and 2, it is clear that the layout beyond the old city follows the directions of the landscape [source: Steenbergen, C. (1996). Architecture and Landscape: accessed: 02/04/2015 ]

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FORMAL GEOMETRY IN THE LANDSCAPE - THE RENAISSANCE VILLA As a continuation of Jackson’s definition for Landscape Three, the origins of geometry within nature and architecture are recorded significantly within the Renaissance Italian landscape as one of the most important nuclei for the discovery of proportional, rational man-made landscape.

In history, architecture manifests geometries found in nature. These geometries are mostly Platonic and Euclidean in that they are primarily concerned with the attributes of lengths, area, volume and ultimately form which, if articulated correctly, have the power to create and/or reveal a supposed mathematical harmony. In his paper “The Form of the Territory”, Gregotti (2009) considers that this link between nature and culture that is created in our society through landscape refers back to the importance that “each cultural model attributes to its physical environment and to the place that it occupies on the scale of values in relation to its formal structure.” (Gregotti, 2009 : 9) The word place or locus (lat.) is mathematically defined as the set of all points, lines, or surfaces that satisfy a given requirement. The origin of the term locus is rooted in the mythical cross of the founding of a town and in the design matrix of Roman cultivation. (Dictionary.com, n.d.) It is geometrically determined as the point in the rationally planned agricultural landscape from which distance is measure and time refers back to. Topography defines landscape and it describes the geometrical order of nature, being it Euclidean or Platonic. The topography of the medieval agricultural landscape was very much in keeping with the natural site conditions.

During the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci experimented with a rationalization of the topography. He studied the link between a geometric grid plan and a river’s natural course. “In this way the idea evolved that an ideal proportional system, a rational scheme of dimensions and proportions, could be derived in which the relationship between humankind and nature could be enhanced. The concept of rational space expanded from the scale of the individual building to the interrelation between the city and the countryside. (Fig 15 )

Fig 15:

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Andrea Palladio - Villa Capra detta La Rotonda - Vicenza 1566 [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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“In the Renaissance villa both the surrounding landscape and the positioning of the garden were determined by this architectonic design matrix. The formal ordering of the matrix was transformed into a linking of rational and formal compositional fragments which were held together by the contours of the natural topography.” (Stenbergen, 1996 : 14) This was realised through framing scenic and urban panoramas and defining a landscape where the juxtaposition between geometry and nature was directed in order to achieve the ideal set. This mathematical model became the new ‘aesthetic’ in the design of the Tuscan and Roman Renaissance villa. Designed by the architect, which, within the domain of the villa, placed the landscape under the control of human intellect, the imposed proportional system would also dictate the definitive position of the villa with regard to the surrounding landscape.

The design of the 15th and 16th-century Italian villa demonstrates the architectonic unification of the villa, the city, the landscape and the nature; the hidden geometry within the topography of the place was revealed through big gestures of landscape manipulation that emphasised the borrowed visual connections with each other and further with the city. (Sellers and Taylor, 2000) (Fig 16 ) In 15th century Florence, the cradle of political, scientific and artistic experiment, the neo-Platonist idea of the imitation of nature was stated mathematically. This search for a rational, geometric system for understanding nature in connection with the human being was interrogated in the work of many intellectuals along history from Plato, Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Alberti, Vitruvius and many others.

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Fig 16: FLORENCE The territorial arrangement of the Medici villas along the Arno Valley [source: Steenbergen, C. (1996). Architecture and Landscape: accessed: 01/04/2015 ]

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“An important consequence of this for villa architecture was not only the concept that it should be possible to devise an ideal, proportional system, but also that, above all, the relationship between villa and landscape, or, in an even broader sense, between humankind and nature, could be established within this rational scheme of dimensions and proportions.” (Steenbergen, 1996: 41) The Arcadian villas represented the cultural ideal of rural life, the so-called Villeggiatura. The beginning of this progress is captured in the 15th century Tuscan villas. The Romans already distinguished between the villa rustica as a farm and the villa urbana as a spacious country house. The mutual link between them is the harmony of the geometrical plan superimposed on the natural landscape and the established ‘theatrical’ location. Space emerges as an independent condition and is defined by scientific perception.

Through the manifestation of perspective in the design of the villa in connection with the natural landscape, the notion of rational stage management or integrazione scenica is introduced.

“In the villa the perspectival stage management of natural space became an architectural exercise.

The villa was always projected against the background of the natural landscape; it is the setting to which the villa, in the foreground, has to be linked perspectively.” (Steenbergen, 1996 : 43) This concept represents a very important characteristic in the way the villa is integrated within the landscape and it summarises some of the geometrical, proportional and ideal notions explored in the Renaissance. It is the common aspect that makes the difference when analysing two of the most representative examples in terms of the rational design of the villa, Villa Medici at Fiesole and Villa Gamberaia.

Fig 17: Integrazione Scenica in Villa Crivelly, Inverigo [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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Fig 18: Villa Medici, Fiesole [source: http://www.fantasiavillas.com accessed: 15/04/2015 ]

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Fig 19: Villa Gamberaia [source: http://www.fantasiavillas.com accessed: 15/04/2015 ]

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VILLA MEDICI

Villa Medici represented an important morphosis of the modest residences in the countryside into an imposing translation of the urban villa in ordering a greater landscape. It was the Medici family who initiated the building of villas outside the city at the beginning of the 15th century reaching a grand number of villas expanded into an imposing territorial system.

The Medici Villas were some of the first architectural precedents to highlight the connection between architecture, gardens, and the environment and became an enduring reference for princely residences throughout Italy and Europe. Their gardens and integration into the natural environment helped develop the appreciation of landscape characteristic of Humanism and the Renaissance. (Fig 20 ) The choice on the location of the villa was based on empirical considerations as well as economic, political and speculative statements. The compulsory attributes were; a view of the town, which represented the centre of their power at the time, and a view of their other properties which implies that the villas were situated in each other’s field of vision.

Villa Medici at Fiesole was built between 1451 and 1457, and it was designed by Michelozzo for one of the Medici family members. According to Mazzini and Martini (2016), due to its diverse ownership, the villa was subjected to subsequent alterations and recent debates have voiced that the villa owes its design to Leon Battista Alberti rather than to Michelozzo and that it then became the prototype of the Renaissance villa.

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A particular attention is paid to the proportions which imply that Alberti’s design not only used the geometry of the architecture to emphasize the landscape but also that this hilltop dwelling, with its view over the city, is the very first example of a country dwelling, a villa suburbana. Donata Mazzini (2016) highlights that the beauty of this building is not attributable to medieval decorative elements, but to the simplicity of the structure which results in economy, necessity beauty and, above all, harmony in the proportions. It commands the distant landscape and organises the natural topography.

Being situate at around 250 meters above the Arno valley and in relation to the centre of Florence, its position in the landscape offers a southern orientation of the garden while the villa’s facade is leaning off the steeper south-facing hilltop which offers protection against the colder north-east winds in winter and in summer it invites the sea’s cool air from the west. In respect to Alberti’s directions, the villa is aligned with the points of the compass and at an angle to the natural slope.

After a thorough analysis of the dimensions of the entire villa in 1986, Gerrit Smienk and Clemens Steenbergen reached to the conclusion that the original ground floor plan of the villa can be seen as a system of squares: two small one in the house and two larger ones in the garden. Incorporated into the margins are the so called transitional elements, defined by Steenbergen: the west retaining wall, the two loggias, the winter and the summer houses on the upper terrace and the pergola, which contribute to the setting of the villa into the landscape. (Fig 21 )

Fig 20: Villa Medici, Fiesole, vie of Brunelleschi’s Duomo, Florence and the extended axis of symmetry of the lower terrace [source: Steenbergen, C. (1996). Architecture and Landscape: accessed: 01/04/2015 ]

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The hypothetical geometric system can be seen as a dimensional scheme in which the connection between the plan of the house, the garden and the landscape could be controlled mathematically.

The transitional elements defined by the geometry of the plan are important pylons in the spatial integrazione scenica of the villa in the landscape, with Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence as referential and connectivity point with the city and the Arno Valley. Placed in the spatial context, they form a coherent architectural system determining the particular location of the main house with regards to the panorama. The garden is a decisive element in the setting of the villa by emphasizing its transversal north-south axis through natural elements and use of vegetation and water.

“In their mutual cohesion, the elements placed symmetrically on the axis form a system that incorporates nature into the estate into a tangible and pictorial way. The transitional architectural elements and the natural elements are here integrated into the geometric and spatial system of the villa, so as to form an Arcadian idyll of poetry and proportions.� (Steenbergen, 1996 : 59)

Fig 21: Villa Medici, Fiesole. Compositional Elements [source: Steenbergen, C. (1996). Architecture and Landscape: accessed: 28/03/2015 ]

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VILLA GAMBERAIA

Villa Gamberaia lies also in the Arno Valley in a lower position in the landscape in relation to Florence than Villa Medici, at a height of about 100 meters. Like Villa Medici the house was under different occupancies along the years which implied its alterations to the plan. After its destruction in the Second World War, the villa was rebuilt to its original state when under the occupancy of the Capponi family in 1717. (Villagamberaia.com, n.d.)

In terms of its location, Villa Gamberaia occupies a hidden place within the topography in a similar way that Villa Medici is being accessed from the main road. A high wall represents the boundry between Villa Medici and the road, while in the case of Villa Gamberaia, the main house remains concealed from the entrance road because of the difference in levels.

“The plan of Villa Gamberaia was designed according to the stanze concept in that it comprises a number of autonomous and separately designed parts defined within the total composition.” (Steenbergen, 1996 : 77) What is similar to the design of both villas is that these transitional elements contribute to the composition of the integrazione scenica which is characteristic of the Renaissance Villegiatura. The rationality of the design in Villa Gamberaia is seen in the geometrical matrix of the situation of each of these elements which are united by the long central lawn – the bowling green – which on one side connects the villa to the earth by means of a grotto cut into the hills while at the other end the statue of Diana directs the view towards the horizon. The panoramic view reoccurs multiple times along the main axis of the house, inserted into a series of themes joined by the central lawn.

Fig 22: Villa Gamberaia, Compositional Elements [source: Steenbergen, C. (1996). Architecture and Landscape: accessed: 28/03/2015 ]

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While at Villa Medici, the position of the main house in relation to the contour lines of the landscape is underlined by the oblique garden wall in the upper garden and by the verticality of the terraces in the sloping terrain, in Villa Gamberaia the integrazione scenica is achieved through an emphasis on the architectural axis that orders the landscape around the villa and accentuates its exact position in relation to other compositional elements.

Whereas at Villa Medici at Fiesole the spatial system of the villa is distilled in the house itself, at this villa the long central lawn is the focus of the stage management. The references to nature and landscape are expressed through the active composition elements that are placed in an orthogonal matrix. The grotto, belvedere, screens, gates, hall, patio, salon, nymphaeum and loggia are not coupled directly to one another, but via the bowling green, which organises all the elements like an internal street defining borrowed views and distant vanishing points.

Both Villa Medici and Villa Gamberaia are representative of the rational, proportional and ideal system of organisation between landscape, architecture and humans. The hidden geometry within nature is revealed in the design of the villas and through landscape manipulation and territorial connection the concept of rational stage management is being defined.

“The rational matrix is laid over the natural landscape. The relationship between human kind and nature is treated within this system of measurements and proportions. The landscape elements that fall within this matrix are ordered and transformed.� (Steenbergen, 1996 : 8 )

Fig 23: Villa Gamberaia, Compositional Elements [source: Steenbergen, C. (1996). Architecture and Landscape: accessed: 28/03/2015 ]

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TO P O LO GY A N D TO P O G R A P H Y M O D E R N I N T E R P R E TAT I O N The picturesque landscape of the Italian cities and countryside has represented inspiration for every generation of architects seeking the purity of the plan, the beauty of the place and the rational experience of the position within the landscape. Alvar Aalto, Louis Kahn, Alvaro Siza, Gunar Asplund and many other modern architects have explored the territory of geometry from the scale of the individual building to the relation between landscape and architecture at a master-plan level. The integrazione scenica developed as a concept in the design of Renaissance Arcadian Villas is uniquely interpreted and manifested in the architectural style of each of the architects’ work with regards to space, geometry and form.

Using architecture to enhance topography is inspirationally achieved in Alvar Aalto’s architectural work.

His admiration for the Italian hill town, in which Aalto saw the perfect integration of architecture and landscape, is recorded in his designs as a recurrent theme. He often derives the organisation of the building from the profile of the landscape, emphasizing it through architectural manipulations and perspectival distortion and symbolism.

“His architecture is not a replication of the natural forms but through it he transforms program into direct or metaphorical continuities between landscape and construction.” (Berlanda, 2014 : 96) Reyner Banham (1955) considers that when discussing Aalto’s architecture, and in particular certain ensembles or campuses of buildings like those found at Seinäjoki, the image becomes whole at a topological level. Every element follows and underscores the morphology of the site. When analysing the town hall and the complex of buildings that form the campus at Seinäjoki, one can notice that the profile of the terrain is remodelled to highlight the transition from the square to the town hall, which sits on a miniature grass “acropolis”. While in the case of the Renaissance villas the stage management was realized through manipulation of the natural topography using the process of “cutting” into the hillside, Aalto eliminates the boundary between city and countryside and defines the same concept through an “addition” to the topographical situation. The artificial insertion of an earth mound in the flat urban landscape of the Seinäjoki Town Hall strengthens the configuration of the site and at the same time, accentuates its symbolic nature of public space. (Fig 23 ) “Fascinated by amphitheatres and acropoleis, Aalto considers the town on the hill the purest and natural form of urban design...since it fully reveals its features when contemplated from the level of the human eye, that is from the level of the ground.” (Gutheim, 1960) In relation to his vision and through his classical inspirations, Aalto succeeds in reconnecting the building with the landscape through creating a man-made topography that highlights the importance of the architecture within the overall context being it urban, suburban or rural. He achieves a new interpretation of the concept of stage management through subtle architectural techniques.

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Fig 23: Topographical manipulation & Plan. Seinäjoki Town Hall [source: www.classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com accessed: 15/03/2015 ]

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A COLLEGE IN BROOMHALL

One common theme throughout this study is the analysis of landscape in relation to the architecture and in particular the use of geometry and the concept of stage management to distort perspective, create connection through “borrowed views” and define an emphasis on the rationality and the importance of the building as part of the topography and immersed into the fabric of the city, village or suburb.

The thesis project takes on the natural elements of the landscape as the core idea of the masterplan proposal for Broomhall, Dunfermline, on which the juxtaposition of a geometric grid of one hectare creates hierarchy and organisation and it underlines the special character of the site’s topography.

As part of the overall masterplan, the individual project interrogates the design of an agricultural college, an institution in the landscape, on the location of one of the existing B-listed working farms, Blackhall Farm. The particular location proposed for the college takes into account the existing farms from the site as a way of reinforcing the historical memory of the place and retaining its identity within the proposed development. The intension is to reinterpret the agricultural topology of the site and to create a “distant” connection between the institution and the overall masterplan through a reinterpretation of the landscape.

A hierarchy of proportions is achieved through the insertion of a 9 x 4.5 metre construction grid that rationalises the building and its form and which beyond it becomes a productive grid that organises the gardens of the college. Each function within the construction relates to its immediate landscape condition and the programme is connected through a series of courtyards that respond to a specific landscape condition.

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The scope of rational construction of the landscape architecture is illustrated through the introduction of “the main axis” which, like Villa Gamberaia, organises the architecture and the “garden” through the use of perspective and “framed panoramas” of Dunfermline and the River Forth as the extended context of Broomhall.

The axis introduced in the project represents one of the lines of the geometric grid which was highlighted, extended and became functional as a telescope, aimed at the horizon. By it being meticulously sited within the context, this looking device becomes an autonomous component in itself developing a relation between the building, the centre of the suburb at one end and the agricultural landscape at the other.

The institution’s response to the existing topography highlights the nature of the undulating landscape which represents one of the most powerful images of the existing site. The architecture of the agricultural college will summarise and reinterpret lessons from various analyses of the landscape, the rational stage management or the ‘integrazione scenica’ of the Italian Renaissance Villas, and topological manipulation in Alvar Aalto’s architecture, through clean, strategic, rational and geometric juxtaposition between the natural and the man made.

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Fig 24: Integrazione Scenica in Broomhall College [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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Fig 24:

Integrazione Scenica in Broomhall College [authors own, Eliza Serban, 2016 ]

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