Resources on Modern Villas

Modern Villas for Sale

Modern Architecture

Modern architecture is usually characterised by:

• a rejection of historical styles as a source of architectural form (historicism)
• an adoption of the principle that the materials and functional requirements determine the result
• an adoption of the machine aesthetic
• a rejection of ornament
• a simplification of form and elimination of "unnecessary detail"
• an adoption of expressed structure
• Form follows function

Excerpt from "Modern architecture." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 27 Oct 2006, 16:11 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 30 Oct 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Modern_architecture&oldid=84068536

Villas

A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class. According to Pliny the Elder, there were two kinds of villas, the villa urbana, which was a country seat that could easily be reached from Rome (or another city) for a night or two, and the villa rustica, the farm-house estate, permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would center on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied. There were a concentration of Imperial villas near the Bay of Naples, especially on the Isle of Capri, at Monte Circeo on the coast and at Antium (Anzio). Wealthy Romans escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Frascati (cf Hadrian's Villa). Cicero is said to have possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near Arpinum, which he inherited. Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions.

Renaissance villas
In 14th and 15th century Italy, a 'villa' once more connoted a country house, sometimes the family seat of power like Villa Caprarola, more often designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city. The first examples of Renaissance Villa dates back to the age of Lorenzo de' Medici, and they are mostly located in the Italian region of Tuscany (the "Medici villas") such as the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo (begun in 1470) or the Villa Medici in Fiesole (since 1450), probably the first villa created under the instructions of Leon Battista Alberti, who theorized in his De re aedificatoria the features of the new idea of villa. From Tuscany the idea of villa was spread again through Italy and Europe.

Excerpt of "Villa." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 Oct 2006, 16:21 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Oct 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Villa&oldid=82831165

Image from "Image:Villa_Medici_a_Fiesole_1.jpg" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Oct 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Villa_Medici_a_Fiesole_1.jpg