Research Project Outline
Introduction
– Villa Giulia, Rome, Italy
– is an Italian Renaissance building located in Villa Borghese, Rome, Italy.
– It was mainly built to be a country retreat for Pope Julius III.
– Its construction started in 1551, and it was completed in 1553 during which it was the edge of the city.
– The Pope being an expert of arts, decided to assign the construction of Villa Giulia to Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola as the main Architect.
– Apart from Giacomo Barozzi, other Architects who took part in the construction of the Villa are Bartolomeo Ammanati Michelangelo and Giorgio Vasari who designed garden structures and nymphaeum.
Thesis statement:
The Nymphaeum is the most remarkable feature of Villa Giulia containing a miniature self-enclosed world sunken into the ground integrating itself with nature.
Body
1. Villa Gulia’s Plan and Sections
Plans and sections expresses repetitions of geometry creating different volumes of spaces.
– The tension between axis and route creates a disharmony from the vertical construction of the nymphaeum
– The building plan emphasizes solid and void conception distinguishing open spaces and covered spaces.
2. Nymphaeum
The sunken garden integrates into the ground embracing itself with nature
becomes a host to transitional thresholds to different chambers and passages.
– This area consists of three layers in which 2 are sunken into the ground.
– The garden confines two triumphant staircases that are integrated with the retaining wall leading to the sunken sections
– The lowest level contains a grotto forming a water theater and becomes the center of the villa
– Water from the Acqua Vergine aqueduct is channeled into the Nyphaeum and then to splashing fountains creating a “theater of water.”
3. Museological experience/circulation
The Nymphaeum’s circulation diverges users’ visual experience with hidden entrances, pathways and secret eddies impelling them to explore more.
– Elements such as hidden entrances to the passage ways, secret spiral stairs to the upper loggia and the private garden beyond the loggia produce dramatic surprises which contribute to the attraction of the Nymphaeum.
4. Acqua Vergine
The Acqua Vergine was an iconic presence of legitimacy, tradition, power and
history giving the same presence to Villa Giulia by creating the magnificent
water feature/theater inside the Nympaeum.
– In the history of Rome, Acqua Vergine has played a crucial role as a symbol of political and cultural legitimacy.
– It was the water first brought into Rome by Marcus Agrippa in 19 B.C.E. and since the reign of Augustus, it has supplied the city.
– Acqua Vergine was an almost iconic presence, symbolizing history, tradition and legitimacy of the political elite from the ancient Roman Empire. Unlike most Roman aqueducts, the AcquaVergine entered the city from the north.
– Villa Giulia is located east of the Via Flaminia, about a half mile north of the Porta del Popolo, by the Acqua Vergine.
5. Decorations/columns
– Nymps statues/columns
– The Nymphaeum consists of four Nymph fountains built over a well.
– Water features would have made the area the center section in the summer where meals and meetings due to its coolest and most decorated area of the villa.
– The upper story is decorated with river deities of the Arno and Tiber.
– Twin flights of marble steps lead down to a columned hall to the lowest level that surrounds a small mosaic courtyard and a portico loggia supported by caryatids surrounding the central fountain.
Conclusion:
– The integration of the building with nature is emphasized with the site orientation and the creation of the sunken secret garden, Nymphaeum.
– The hills surrounding the site protects the building making it more secluded and private.
– The most surprising of all for me is that the building does not only give you a direct experience of the building but diverts you from certain places due to hidden passages and entrances, and frustrates you in way that you are impelled to explore more.
– Ammannati compared the building to a theater, and the garden to a proscenium and a stage. That the play is opened by the user himself; he is both the spectator and the actor in his progress through the plan.
– Movement is important for the unveiling of the spectacle.
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