NOLI / PIRANESI

06 - SEBASTIANO SERLIO

Dwelling for a King (Project 31) Rimini, Italy

The Sixth Book by Sebanstiano Serlio covers a wide range of habitations from local huts to the more luxurious palaces. As the records of habitations progress towards high-ranking, the space forming sequence seems to transform from an additive system to a subtractive system. The variations of housings for noble gentlemen seem to position a courtyard, subsequently populating its perimeter with smaller spaces to cumulate into a geometry – most likely a quadrilateral form. Whereas, the more luxurious habitations for Princes and Kings seem to position a geometry – which could take different configurations – while subtracting from such dominant figure, with yet more variations of geometry – not restricted to quadrilateral forms. The primacy of Platonic forms and its arrangement, not restricted by any limitations of space has consequently generated a more solidified and accentuated poché. Dwelling for a King (Project 31) has its idiosyncrasies in comparison to its contemporaries with synonymous subtractive schemes such as Dwelling for a Prince (Project S18 & 22), Fortress for a Tyrant Prince (Project Et 23 & Et 24), Pavilion for a King (Project Y25), and House of a King (Project 27). While the inner-spaces of these contemporaries are mostly generated by rotation, repetition, or mirroring on fixed units, Dwelling for a King (Project 31) seems to be relatively arbitrary in its positioning of inner spaces. This I hypothesize is due to the employment of an oval form, before the Cartesian oval was discovered by Descartes. The major axis of the oval form is contracted as it expands outwards, virtually converging towards a circular form. This most likely is a practical solution, pursuing an orderly arrangement of inner spaces, which can be kept somewhat in a uniform condition; if the oval was a mere scaling operation preserving its proportions, the inner spaces would contract in the vicinity of the minor axis and elongate as it approaches the major axis. Furthermore, the colonnades of the loggia are never aligned towards the center of the oval. They all face towards different points on the major axis of the oval; the closer the inner spaces are positioned to the major axis, they are directed further from the center of the oval, and the closer they are positioned to the minor axis, they are directed closer to the center. The inner spaces, although seemingly following the same rules as the collonades of the loggia, are more arbitrary in its alignment. The inner spaces closest to the major axis do not comply to the rule, and these spaces can be conjectured as a poché-filler more than an orderly form.