I've been boning up on Palladio given our current project in Žemoji Panemunė. It is a mid-17th century villa that appears to be modeled upon Palladio's principles as laid out in his Four Books of Architecture, or Quattro Libri, which essentially served as a compendium of his work. It's nice to finally be putting these principles to work in coming up with a modern addition to the surviving ruins.
We struggled to find any direct historic analogy for this building. The closest we came was the Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza, Italy, which dates from the mid 16th century. I probably saw it when I was in Vicenza many years ago but didn't associate it with Palladio. I hoofed it to the Villa Rotonda outside of town, the most recognizable of all his villas and the one I was schooled in when I studied architecture.
Normally, the arcades are at the center of the building, not to the outside, unless serving as a connection. The villa would have had a mirrored set of arcades but had collapsed in the late 18th or early 19th century probably as a result of the subjugation by Russia. A Scottish-Polish family bought the estate and rebuilt one half of it, lopping off the top of the surviving building and filling in the arcades. It has survived in this condition, although as you can see just barely. It was capped with a new roof in the mid-20th century and briefly served as a hospital during the Soviet Union before falling into ruin again.
No one put much value to it until architectural research was done in the early 1990s. Turns out this was originally a Sapiegos family estate, the most important Lithuanian family in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their main residence was in Vilnius but they built this villa around the same time and occupied it until a civil war broke out in the country and their landholdings were greatly reduced. Unfortunately, this research was allowed to languish as well. It wasn't until an enterprising young couple bought the estate in 2020 that interest was rekindled.
They spent the better part of two years clearing the rubble from the collapsed roof and second floors, revealing a multi-layered interior that shows all the changes that were done over the years. They solicited architects and historians to piece together the history of the estate, which includes a vast apple orchard stretched between two much earlier hill-forts or piliakalniai. They dated one of the fruit trees back to the early 18th century. It is about a kilometer between the remnants of the two earthen structures which are at least 1000 years old. The end result is stunning as the house and orchard are now fully revealed and a popular tourist destination, where you can also sample the sparkling apple cider they make on site.
Last Fall they approached us to design an addition that would be sympathetic to the ruins, which they wanted to conserve and treat as an interpretive site. We didn't hear anything from them for a couple of months then they got back to us just before Christmas and said they wanted us to be the architects. They had seen the concert hall we had done at Paliesiaus estate and thought we were the right ones for the job.
We have been to the site half a dozen times, which helps me better understand the changing seasons. It is truly a magical spot as the villa sits on a bluff overlooking the Nemunas River that winds its way through the southern half of Lithuania. The villa was site to gain the best views in all directions.
In reading Palladio, the Villa and the Landscape, this was clearly Palladio's intent even if he didn't go into detail in his Quattro Libri. He focused more on the architecture itself. However, the German author are convinced that Palladio understood the genius loci or spirit of a place long before Alexander Pope popularized the term in the 18th century. Palladio probably thought it went without saying that you located the villa in the most advantageous spot on the estate, basing the axes on important features like the two hill forts to establish a greater sense of permanence, as if the villa had always belonged there.
The villa is different from the castles and fortified estates of previous centuries in that it was designed to be open to the landscape. There might be fortifications but they would be located at a lower level so as not to diminish the site lines. In this case, somewhere down the bluff overlooking the river. Archeologists were able to find some ruins.
While we tend to idealize the villa today, in Palladio's time it would have been a working estate. The Venetian kingdom had reclaimed the Veneto and was draining the marshes to be used as farmland. As our client noted, same thing here, as they plan to make the apple orchard an integral part of their cider production by the end of the year. They bought a long farmhouse, which was once part of the estate, to turn into their distillery. Right now they are working out of a small Soviet-era building, which they will eventually tear down as it was built over the original basement of the portion of the villa that had collapsed.
I had never been much of a cider drinking but their sparkling cider is truly refreshing. Rasa explained the process, saying they had modeled along French methods using a variety of apples to give it a fuller taste.
Having spent so much time on the site, our clients have developed a deep intimacy with it and of course have their ideas. Our job is more or less to visualize these ideas for them. When I had put together a collage of ideas earlier, piecing together analogies I had found on-line, they were very happy to see we were looking at the same virtually the same way. It is always pleasant to have this kind of working relationship with a client rather than try to guess what they are looking for.
I work kind of slow, preferring to build models rather than create 3-D visualizations as it allows me to get a better sense of how the building goes together. Daina is always chiding me that it takes too long but I like thinking over the building in every angle until I am satisfied with what I have. I started at 1:100 but could see I was going in the wrong direction, so reverted to a smaller scale to build a couple of study models to better understand the forms. Once satisfied, I went back to 1:100 to build a more detailed model with openings that allowed the clients and critics to see through the building.
I chose not to actively defend the design as arguments generally lead nowhere, as I found out in the past. Let the critics say what they will, even if some of their comments rankle me. For the most part the cultural heritage experts were satisfied with the design, voicing no major objections.
Afterward, we sat down with Rasa and Vytautas to go over the plans and see if the rooms suited their vision. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside with the sun-dappled villa behind us, sipping on cider as their elegant Hovawart sniffed at the mozzarella cheese, olive and tomato platters. Daina had the idea to take pictures of the model in relation to the historic facades.
This essentially brings us to the end of the first stage. Now, we have to make a few revisions, think more about the materials and put together a formal presentation for the cultural heritage department. It feels great to be working on a building that has such an important place in Lithuanian history. As one of our colleagues pointed out, it may very well have been the first country villa to be built in the former Grand Duchy as before that the estates were heavily fortified. Fortunately, our clients aren't rushing us, so we have time to carefully think out the details.
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