Concept: beauty
-creation
-composition
-construction
“Instituzione pratica dell’ architettura civile per la decorazione de’ pubblici, e privati edifici” creates a teaching environment through an ensemble of text and illustrations. The architect Paolo F. Bianchi addresses his book both to designers and to craftsman. The book serves as a guidance to create a whole building but therefor he addresses numerous components that all together create a “nobile edificio”. For this purpose, he explains the importance of the different components of a house. He argues that they should all play well together and if so, this interplay produces a beautiful and noble building (“un bello, e nobile Edificio”).
The part of the book that stuck out the most to me is the third section, when Bianchi talks “de pliastri, e delle alre parti principali”. This part is divided into six chapters that each treat other fields of what creates a building. It is really important to mention at this point, that there is a wilfully made differentiation between the composition and the construction of public buildings and private buildings. As mentioned, this part of the book is divided into six chapters in which Bianchi treats important architectural themes, such as the importance of the column in ancient buildings. He treats the subject of the column carefully and puts in relation with the orders. The orders here are the ones thought by Vitruvius and Bianchi mentions him as he talks about this subject.
The chapter that interested me as an ongoing architect the most though, is the fifth “delle Porte, delle Finestre e die qualunque altra Parte Principale di un bello, e nobile edificio”. I found it remarkable how parts of a building such as a door are discussed with much precision and passion. I think that underlines the statement that Bianchi made at the very beginning of the third part of the book; “…Ch’entrano a comporre un bello, e nobile Edificio” and the claim that he made, that the relationship between the different components of a building is crucial. So, it seems really logical that he each component with much detail and even underlines his explanation with illustrations. Furthermore the fact that this chapter is situated nearly at the end of the book shows that these are the “last” element to create a beautiful building (“un bello, e nobile Edificio”).