Selected Bibliography Architecture - Form Space and Order | Page 308

6
Proportion & Scale
“. . . Within the Villa Foscari you are aware of the thickness of the walls
that separate the rooms, each of which has been given definitive and
precise form. At either end of the cross-arm of the central hall is a
square room measuring 16 x 16 feet. It lies between a larger and a smaller
rectangular room, the one 12 x 16, the other 16 x 24 feet, or twice as
large. The smaller has its longer wall, the larger its shorter, in common
with the square room. Palladio placed great emphasis on these simple
ratios: 3:4, 4:4, and 4:6, which are those found in musical harmony.
The width of the central hall is also based on 16. Its length is less
exact because the thickness of the walls must be added to the simple
dimensions of the rooms. The special effect of the hall in this firmly
interlocked composition is produced by its great height, the barrelvaulted ceiling towering high above the side rooms into the mezzanine.
But, you may ask, does the visitor actually experience these proportions?
The answer is yes—not the exact measurements but the fundamental
idea behind them. You receive an impression of a noble, firmly integrated
composition in which each room presents an ideal form within a greater
whole. You also feel the the rooms are related in size. Nothing is
trivial—all is great and whole.”
Steen Eiler Rasmussen
Experiencing Architecture
1962

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