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The Form And Ideology Of Country House

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Luke Byrne
Structural Engineering with Arch
Student Number: 15398721

The Villa; the form and ideology of the Country House

The Villa has always been a part of social standings, leisure and art throughout History. Built in the country side the mould of a villa has not changed in over two thousand years (Akerman, 1990). Outside the city, upper class people found peace away from overcrowded, diseased cities. The ideology of country life was often pursued by these nobles. Too them, the idyllic country lifestyle was the natural way of life consisting of peace, innocence and simple virtue (Williams, 2011). The country house was a place of comfort, leisure and wealth, far from the ‘real country was of life’ lived by the farmers and lower classes. Only the rich nobles sought leisure in the countryside, and this is what the Villa symbolised. Too the upper class the villa was more than just a home, it was a better way of life, encouraged arts and music and most important an escape from the city. The concept of the villa was around since 2000 years stretching from Roman times all through the medieval age, evident from painting and tapestries in all stages of history (Akerman, 1990). Around the 1500s the Renaissance began, and the basic programme and ideology of the Villa grew. In Europe the monarchy halted progress of Villas, …show more content…

Built around 1480 near St. Peter’s Basilica by Pope Innocent VIII, this building sparked the renaissance type architecture seen in Rome today (Coffin, 1988). While the villa was beside the Vatican, the Belvedere was built for peace and fresh air. Pope Innocent was quite ill for his life and it was advised to get clean air. The resulting structure became a representation for the typical suburban villa built near Rome. There was a sense of informality in the plans, stemming from their decent from the countryside farmhouse (Coffin, 1988), bring country lifestyle closer to

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