Performing Palladio

Abstract

The relevance of music theory as an interpretive framework for the understanding of Palladio's work has been one of the most debated subjects in the realm of architectural theory and criticism. Typically the debate is quite abstract and it focuses on possible mappings between the ratios found in Palladio's plans and corresponding ratios used in contemporary musical temperaments. The paper here rather focuses on the actual performance of the ratios found in Palladio's work and the implications of this performance, melodic and harmonic, for the perception of the space for a situated observer/performer. To that extent the study suggests a model of mapping between space, sound and color and correlates that with polygon partition theory to simulate movement within a space. A brief account of the computer implementation with game engines technology is provided in the end. All examples to test these ideas are based on Palladio's Villa Capra.