The Absolute is Fictitious

The absolute is fictitious.

“These distinctions scarcely require insistence; and no doubt it should only be sententiously, suggested that, in the case of the derivative works, it is perhaps an adherence to ‘rules’ which has lapsed.” - Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of The Ideal Villa It would be a great injustice to neglect the style of criticism employed by Colin Rowe, in his comparative analysis of Palladio’s Villa Malcontenta and Corbusier’s Villa Garches. An exhaustive revelation of the parallel between buildings begins to erode and what proceeds, is an evading of objective clearness in order to deliver a perfect rendering of information. Unquestionable clarity becomes relative.

Two villas, centuries apart, are “…. superficially so entirely unlike that to bring them together would seem to be facetious” but, also extremely sagacious. Rowe’s chosen framework enlightens that both villas are theoretically; conceived as a cube of similar volumes with dimensions of 8x5.5x5 unit and the same spatial ratio’s that transcend through their exteriors are justified by their structural systems.

Now, there is no denying the author's subject knowledge nor his attention to detail. However, an interesting use of vocabulary appears to alternate through the essay, on one hand he suggests a kind of certainty whilst describing the scheme of the villas in the plans, but also bringing into play words such as; ‘maybe’, if’ or ‘perhaps’ and at times almost as if to counter his claims, he even goes as far as suggesting “…it might be better to introduce an almost.” when he described the distribution of horizontal coordinates in both cases and their corresponding spatial intervals which incidentally, is the author’s unassailable point.

A detailed, well-written and rigorous account of the Villas bring to our attention a theory that identified across hundreds of years; underlying principles of organisation whilst re-evaluating modern architecture in an historical context. There is an identification of Traditional Architecture having a paralysed plan and a free section and Modern Architecture having a free plan and a paralysed section.

Villa Garches and Villa Malcontenta Floor Plans by Corbusier and Palladio

The point supports on the Garches plan are exaggerated and permit the thin exterior walls to be placed wherever they want to, since they do not support the structure or floors as compared to the cellular heavy-duty compression absorbing walls in the Palladio villa. However, they have floor

planes that are insistent and create some sort of horizontal planar situation, hence the paralyzed section. The cellular characteristics of the plan on the other hand permits some kind of sculpted space in section and so in some sense the two are fundamentally divergent from one another but their internal consistencies going from the front façade through the back are the same.

There is an exercise of consistency here were all the openings and double height spaces read all the way through the plans and reflect in the facades when Malcontenta’s Front elevation is superimposed on the back, and Garches’ front elevation is overlaid over the top.

Villa Garches and Villa Malcontenta Facades superimposed on one and other by Corbusier and Palladio.

To refer to The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa as a rigorous re-evaluation of modern architecture, is not to say that it is... it is to say that, it is a performance in its own right; starring Colin Rowe – the mastermind architect, with the erudition of a scholar and the taste of an aristocratic amateur.

Rowe appeared to have a thing for asserting the importance of feelings over the facts, and as it is made obvious, he had certain opinions about the idea of beauty, nature and harmony.

“The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness”- Aristotle The two villas- parallel to their creators, that are outwardly so disparate; appear to respond to some sort of truth that Rowe’s execution explicitly brings to light. It is almost as if the sole reason for comparing these buildings is to bring about the debate of the meaning of beauty, whether it be subjective or objective. As exhausting as this argument appears to be, it has been ongoing since the supposed beginning of time and the theories behind it have developed within the confinements of western rationale and creative standards.

In the classical period, beauty was thought to be something that exhibited perfect proportion; and not long after, ‘thinkers’ from the Gothic period thought these previous notions of beauty to be sinful. Of course, in the Renaissance era this view was hastily rejected, and beauty was thought to be the end product of rationality, harmony and proportion.

This concept of beauty in the context of form, order and proportion was heavily based on the discipline of Mathematics – it was thought to be like ‘Moral education for the soul’. And, the Pythagoreans imagined beauty as a presence existing in some sort of cosmological state i.e. in the heavens. To support this ideology, Rowe’s strict anthropocentric manner of thinking in Mathematics of the Ideal Villa suggests that beauty does not come from musical harmonies but in fact, is conceived from proportion that is projected from the harmony of the entire universe. Also adding that the idea is “both scientific and religious” and him rendering it ‘unassailable’ actually implies that although the basis of beauty might be subjective, beauty could also be used as a tool to eternalize the idea of ‘present’.

With that said, it is made clear that the classical notions of beauty, seemed to lay a foundation for ideas to come centuries after. During the Italian Renaissance for example; architects, artists and scholars alike realigned their ideologies to the idea of beauty being conceived from proportion and order. Rowe uses these points later to suggest that the rules of architecture in history have been grounded in beauty, divinity and ineffability. And, to some extent I do believe it is possible that when we observe nature, we take from its elements what we deem ‘beautiful’ and study it over time to use it as a mould for everything we create in the present and future i.e buildings, cars, etc.

“Beauty is a matter of size and order” - (Aristotle, Poetics, 1450b37) From an Aristotelian view, It is obvious that in some cases many architects apply the idea of translating the conceptual to an actual form to prove that anything thought of, can be actualised or in their case, ‘ buildable’ and that their creations are not based off the concept alone but the execution of its form, its representation and interpretation. The idea that everything you can see is based of reality not a concept. Be that as it may, everything starts with a concept especially in architecture, and it is the impression that is then utilised to develop a structure and construct it but the conceptualisation is the very essence of the building, it is what forms the physicality of it. With this statement as a kind of exemplification of Plato’s belief that- beauty was the idea above all other ideas, it is fair to make the assumption that abstraction makes the building eternal, as previously suggested with beauty in itself.

After investigating both Aristotle and Plato’s views on beauty, it is evident that they disagree with each other but in different ways both regarded beauty as objective in the sense that it is not constrained to the ‘eyes of the beholder’.

“Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light.

Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and tangible within us without ambiguity. It is for this reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms. Everybody is agreed to that, the child, the savage and the metaphysician."- Le Corbusier The approach taken by the author provides the opportunity to contemplate both architects involved as to provide wider context. As it is made obvious, Palladio’s concentration was on a central emphasis in plan and elevation accompanied with a desired complete clarity of his plans justified by his structures based mostly on symmetry as a classification of order. Whilst Corbusier’s was determined to distribute the focus; and his facades were the primary demonstration of the virtues of a mathematical discipline, and the only proof of this theory lies in his plans. Le Corbusier was fond of working against decoration and aesthetic that would’ve been employed by traditional architects.

Although he often spoke on efficiency, he just happened to be interested in the finality of the aesthetics of his buildings, it was priority to make his structures look like they worked; hence, using the language of science and mathematics to justify his design choices.

Rowe sought out to express his platonic truth that aspired to define beauty as perfect. The idea that the reality around us; in this case these two villas, is a reflection of a kind of higher truth is an interesting approach to Rowe’s methodology. His higher truth being his philosophical notion that the truth is established before the act – A priori concept. We can acknowledge that this concept of beauty can be unpicked in the discovering commonalities between unfamiliar things; in this case discovered in the works of Corbusier and Palladio where their concepts are derived from a geometric analogy and independent of any experiences.

In the same way Rowe was fixated on order and rationality, Aristotle was fixated on one thing – vastness. It was considered as important as the idea of beauty itself, because something too large or too small would be beyond one’s given ability to comprehend the whole and this principle was applied in different areas of the arts like, music and playwriting. So, could it be, that some sort of harmony cannot occur without order and everything that is beautiful must be dictated by a set of natural laws. Seeing as order makes things whole and creates a relationship between everything.

Drawing into Rowe’s platonic archetype of the ideal Virgilian dream is important, because another way to view the idea of beauty is not simply to describe the physicality of the object that is ‘deemed’ beautiful, it’s to recognise that there’s something more metaphysical about the matter, as some sort of harmony runs through the two villas as demonstrated above; an essence flows through them as well – some might even go as far to call it experience. So therefore, you could suggest that a good quality of life is a result of living in these villas.

Good organisational strategy, Good villa, Good life; no? It is obvious after reading this comparative analysis that there is a suggested kind of order by dealings with the world, not just architecture.

Although Corbusier wasn’t as interested in order as Palladio. Rowe made it his mission to ensure every reader knew how he felt about individuals applying this order to their designs. This essay written in 1976 was not a reaction to post-modernist architecture in the late 20th century but instead a recovery response to it; exploring the notion that these elements – order, nature and harmony are set outside contrary to assumptions, that each era has its own set of internal consistencies but these certain aspects are free from type and the precepts of style.

Wölfflin used the idea of a formal analysis of drawing, composing, light and shadow, colour and of course the subject matter; as some sort of criteria for criticising works of art from the Renaissance period and Baroque, which in turn became more than just a distinctive architectural style but a form of language in cultural history. Rowe obviously appreciated this view, hence is wolfflinian style of writing. Which is made evident in the way he fetishises over his own ideologies in his sarcastic rant at the end of his analysis. The comparison that hastily unfolds into a rant becomes so trance-like from a reader’s point of view. Similar to his Diagrams in Collage City, his narrative, description of the villas, attention to detail appear rather overwhelming and surreal.

Diagrams from Collage City by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter

This brings to my attention the title on how arguable it is, If the absolute is unrealistic or in simpler words not physical, then surely the essay isn’t real? What is real and actualised are Villa Garches and Villa Malcontenta from an intellectual point of view, but the mathematics is an idea and just when

you believe you can conclude, you begin to introduce an almost. Perhaps it the other way around - it is the Mathematics which is real and the villas are what are abstract.

In the essay- Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, Rowe’s chosen framework clouds the notion of beauty , which seems very linear and restrictive, almost as if the reader weren’t allowed an opinion whatsoever. The thread of the author's argument becomes lost in an overuse of his ideologies and ironically his essay in itself becomes something of the unachievable because there is only so much of his idea that is justified or proven. So is it then possible that the idea of beauty is in conjunction with the idea of longing for the impossible? The idea of trying to define it is almost unachievable because some things are not fully comprehendible or absolute. In essence, it is the choice that we make whether or not to obsess over our own perceptions as they cannot possible be, perfect.

It is clear and justified in Villa Garches and Villa Malcontenta that a certain beauty arises from proportion, the admiration of the straight line, and order. In most cases, to see an object of any kind symmetrically composed, you are well within your right to imagine some sort of perfection but in the same breath, the word ‘certain’ might be defined as a type and not the ‘absolute’.

There will be no more arguments about aesthetics, and no more agonising discussions about what sort of confinement to put it in. The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa is certainly paradoxical but factual in the sense of the role in which history plays within the discipline of architecture.

It is also arguable, that the will to Ludacris is the will to Beauty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Rowe,C. (1987). The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The MIT Press Hildner,J. (1984) Remembering the Mathematics of the Ideal Villa. Vol. 52. No.3. pp143-162. Taylor &Francis,Ltd. Rowe,C. (18 August 2010).March 1947: The mathematics of the Ideal Villa - Palladio and Le Corbusier compared. Available at https://www.architectural-review.com/archive/march-1947-themathematics-of-the-ideal-villa-palladio-and-le-corbusier-compared/8604100.article. [Date accessed : 17th March 2020] Aristotle.(1984) The Complete Works of Aristotle. 2 Vols. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton University Press.

Plato. (1997) Complete Works. Edited by John M. Cooper. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company.

Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (2012). Beauty. [online]. (Last updated October 5th, 2016).

Available at : https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty/. [Date accessed : 3rd April 2020 ] Wikipedia. Beauty. [online]. (Last updated 12th April 2020, at 08:48 (UTC).) Available at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty . [Date accessed : 20th March 2020 ] Wikipedia. Villa Foscari. [online]. (Last updated 30 December 2019, at 18:32 (UTC).) Available at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VillaFoscari . [Date accessed : 21st March 2020 ]