PALLADIAN Window architecture

Palladian Window

Palladian architecture is a style of architecture that became popular across Europe in the 17th

and 18th C. Palladio worked in the Venice region, so the Palladian window is also called a

Venetian window. It is also called a Serlian window, because the architect Sebastiano Serlio

mentioned it in his writings. Palladian windows made a comeback during the Post-Modern era.

Architect Philip Johnson used it as a doorway (for University of Houston College of Architecture building -1985 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UH_Architecture_Building.jpg) and

at the Museum of Television and Radio building -1991, New York City

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Museum_of_Television_and_Radio_2006.jpg), saying 'I think
Palladian windows have a prettier shape. I wasn't trying to make any more important point than that'.

A Palladian window is a well proportioned symmetrical architectural composition for an opening system, like a large window. It is divided into three parts, the mid unit is an arched opening and wider. It front flanked by columns which are offset from the wall thus creating two smaller width gaps on sides. The side units are narrower and flat headed at the springing line of the arch. It was a complex architectural element, but nearly a self sufficient one. Initially  Palladian window compositions were placed as part of a colonnade or entrance porticoes, an exterior passage. However, later Palladian windows began to be placed at second story, over the entrance doors as the focus element of the building’s façade.

Andrea Palladio: 

Andrea Palladio (Padua Italy 1508-1580), is regarded as the greatest Renaissance architect. At

the age of 13 he started apprenticeship to be a sculptor, later became an assistant in a

masonry workshop in Vicenza. He was inspired by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius (46-30

BC). By 1541 he began to design Roman Renaissance style villas across Italy. During his stay in

Rome (1554-1556) Palladio in published Le antichità di Roma The Antiquities of Rome, which for

200 years remained the standard guide book to Rome. After 20 years of intensive building, Palladio in 1570 published I Quattro libri dell'architettura (The four books of architecture), a treatise on architecture.

Palladio's work is strongly based on the perspective, and his elevations reflect the axial emphasis and symmetry. Palladio designed buildings in terms façade proportions as well as well proportioned spaces. He believed that parts of a house must correspond to the whole and to each other.

Palladio was the most innovative and economic builder of his times. He built his buildings with bricks plastered with stucco. He used cost saving ornate decorations made of terracotta rather then stones. The pediments and architraves were made of wood covered with straw lathing and then stucco. He avoided using, the then popular tapestries, to cover the interior walls and instead applied frescos.

From the 17th C Palladio's interpretation of this classical architecture was adapted as the style known as Palladianism.