William K. Sacco
'Palladio Virtuel' exhibit
After 10 years of studying the villas of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, Peter Eisenman, FAIA, presents his findings at the Yale School of Architecture in Palladio Virtuel. He proposes a reading of 20 of Palladio’s villas that could force architectural historians to take another look at the 16th-century architect. Instead of understanding Palladio’s forms as ideal, with a part-to-whole stability, Eisenman proposes that the villa components—portico, circulation, and central-figured spaces—became all but unrecognizable by the end of Palladio’s career, as Palladio transformed and reinvented his forms. Gray, color-coded villa components are highlighted in 20 villa models and presented in three parts in the exhibit: “The Classical Villas: The Impending Crisis of Synthesis”; “The Barchessa Projects: Extensions into the Landscape”; and “The Virtual Villa: The Dissipation of the Villa Type.” Eisenman, of Eisenman Architects in New York, is the first Charles Gwathmey Professor in Practice at Yale. Through Oct. 27. • architecture.yale.edu
