Selected Bibliography Architecture - Form Space and Order | Page 330

RE N A I S S A N C E T H E ORI E S

Circle

Seven Ideal Plan Shapes for Rooms.
Andrea Palladio (1508–80) was probably the most influential
architect of the Italian Renaissance. In The Four Books on
Architecture, first published in Venice in 1570, he followed in the
footsteps of his predecessors, Alberti and Serlio, and proposed
these seven “most beautiful and proportionable manners of rooms.”

Square

Arithmetic:
c – b = c (e.g., 1, 2, 3 . . . or 6, 9, 12)
b–a c

3:4

2:3

Determining the Heights of Rooms.
Palladio also proposed several methods for determining the height
of a room so that it would be in proper proportion to the room’s
width and length. The height of rooms with flat ceilings would
be equal to their width. The height of square rooms with vaulted
ceilings would be one-third greater than their width. For other
rooms, Palladio used Pythagoras’ theory of means to determine
their heights. Accordingly, there were three types of means:
arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic.

1:√2

3:5

1

1:2

1.3
1

1
1

a

Geometric:
c – b = c (e.g., 1, 2, 4 . . . or 4, 6, 9)
b–a b
Harmonic:
c – b c (e.g., 2, 3, 6 . . . or 6, 8, 12)
=
b–a a

b
c

In each case, the height of a room is equal to the mean (b) between
the two extremes of the width (a) and length (c) of the room.

P ROP ORTION & SCALE / 3 1 5