Reconstructing Palladio’s Villas: A computational analysis of Palladio’s villa design and construction process

This project is ongoing research focused on finding a method of reconstruction, using computational devices to build, represent and evaluate Palladio’s un-built villas in three-dimensions. The first of The Four Books of Architecture contains text and images explaining Palladio’s design and construction systems in the form of rules. These rules were written for masons and craftsmen of the 16th century, offering one and two-dimensional data on each of Palladio’s villas, palaces and churches. The Four Books offers a general treatment of the villas; however, it is missing most of the physical construction data needed to execute a full reconstruction of an un-built building. Many architects and historians have attempted to reconstruct Palladio’s work in drawings, wooden models and computer imagery. This project presents a new method of reconstruction through the definition of construction rules, in addition to shape and proportional rules defined by previous scholars. In also uses 3D printing and texture mapped renderings as design tools. This study uses the Villa Trissino in Meledo as a test case for the process. The end product is a presentation of a method for reconstruction in the form of a three-dimensional analysis of Palladio’s design and construction rules. The goal is to recreate all 24 of the villas found in the Four Books with the same method and rules as a demonstration of qualitative and quantitative input and output from a computational device.