Living with Palladio in the Sixteenth Century

Hierarchies of the household: how Palladio composed his iconic villas for collective living

Visiting the villas of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-80), one inevitably asks oneself how people actually occupied them. Palladio conceived his villas as "small towns" (piccole città) that formed a single unit with adjacent service buildings and farm fields. Within their walls lived people of all ages, social backgrounds and skills. These buildings were the venue for significant moments of public life, and the principles of hygiene, privacy and comfort, which we consider so defining and essential today, did not apply--in a sense furniture as such did not exist.

Living with Palladio in the Sixteenth Century investigates how Palladio's houses, their floors, rooms and measurements, were designed to structure the life of such a heterogeneous family of people. It analyses their hierarchical structure with the owner (padrone) at the top and everyone involved in the everyday running of the household (famiglia minuta) at the bottom. This book fills a decisive gap in research literature on the famous Italian architect by looking at how Palladio prioritized the domestic functions of his private buildings.

Expanding upon Palladio's idea that his villas were "small towns" (piccole città), Foscari examines the architect's consideration of sanitation, privacy, family life, and other non-aesthetic aspects critical to the design of a functional home.--Adam Chen "New Criterion"