Power, Comfort, Shape, Beautiful Appearance. Remarks on Shaping an Architectural Work According to the Anonymous Author of the 1659 Brief Teaching of Building
Franciszek Skibiński
franek_skibinski@umk.plWydział Sztuk Pięknych, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń (Poland)
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5084-9745
Abstract
Published in 1659, Brief Teaching of Building Manors, Palaces, Castles in Compliance with the Polish Sky and Custom [Krótka nauka budownicza dworów, pałaców, zamków podług nieba i zwyczaju polskiego], is the first in Poland genuine book entirely dedicated to residential architecture. An attempt at a new interpretation of the text is presented, particularly in reference to the relations between functional and aesthetical values of a building and to the principles of their shaping. Addressing the gentry immediately following a devastating war, the treatise author tried to find, resorting to understandable language, a compromise between a rapid and simple way of planning and raising a manor, however, while also respecting the classical rules of architecture. In his view, the source of architectural beauty is to be found in the proportions of the respective building’s parts, as well as in the harmony among these and with the whole. He relates these rules firstly to the interior arrangement and to the distribution and placement of windows and doors. In this very way they were connected with the Vitruvian principle of utility (utilitas). The building’s external form is the consequence of skilful and sensible interior divisions, with the proportions and harmony of respective elements playing here the organizing role. It is precisely the relation between the interior and elevation that is decisive for the building’s aesthetics. Emphasising durability and utility, the author considers the structure’s proper division defined as compartito: a rational and harmonious spatial arrangement ordering the whole of the building, to be of key importance for shaping an architectural work. Subordinating the harmonious relation of a building’s part to the supreme compartito principle, for which the reference is to be rather found in utilitas than in venustas, makes the aesthetics of the building express itself precisely in the ‘skilful and sensible division of the building’. Linking the building’s aesthetics to its functionality and durability, as well as treating it as an organic whole in which the spatial functional arrangement and hence resulting elevation divisions must harmonize, places this Polish treatise within the Palladian tradition. However, the functional value should not be interpreted in the spirit of modern functionalism, but more as a strict connection of the building’s interior arrangement with its purpose, which should be adequately reflected in the architectural form. The useful character of architecture is inseparably connected with the cultural context, as the spatial-versus-functional arrangement must be adjusted to local conditions and customs.
Supporting Agencies
Keywords:
residential architecture, Vitruvius, Brief Teaching BuildingReferences
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Authors
Franciszek Skibińskifranek_skibinski@umk.pl
Wydział Sztuk Pięknych, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń Poland
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5084-9745
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