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From Experiencing Architecture by Steen Eiler Rasmussen
If architecture is frozen music, then rhythm has to do with the regularity or irregularity of the patterns of elements like windows, columns or beams. In Experiencing Architecture, Rasmussen says we “experience delightful examples of subtle
variation within strict regularity.” The 15th Century row houses in Venice called
Calle dei Preti (above) are a perfect example of this.
RHYTHM
In Rome, the Spanish Steps are a must-see. Here is how Rasmussen describes them.
“With its bends and turns it seems to have been based on an old fashioned, very ceremonial dance—the Polonaise—in which the dancers advance four by four
in a straight line and then separate, two going to the right and two going to
the left; they turn, turn again, curtsey, meet again on the large landing,
advance together, separate once more to left and right, and finally
meet again at the topmost terrace where they turn to face the
view and see Rome lying at their feet.” The engraving by
the famous architectural illustrator, Pirenesi, shows
men and women enjoying the steps in the formal
attire worn at the time of the construction
of these monumental stairs.
San Miniato, a
church outside of
Florence, is a much less
subtle example of rhythm
enriched with geometric pattern.
The upper facade was designed and
paid for by the Florentine Cloth Merchants Guild in the 12th
century, explaining the decorative cloth-like treatment of the facade.
My first solo design as Project Manager at Ferendino, Grafton, Spillis & Candela in Coral Gables was the classroom-office building for Miami Dade Community College in 1975. The style of the design had been established by the earlier campus designer in the firm, Andy Ferendino himself. My charge was to keep the design consistent with the earlier buildings on campus. The rendering below shows that I divided the building into two halves under one roof, the right for the classrooms and the left for the offices, following the deep overhung walkways and expressed structural rhythm of similar buildings on campus. I designed the left side to express a different use inside the offices. That is where I departed from anything else on campus and introduced the vertical rhythm of sunscreens made of concrete. It was built and occupied before we moved back to Boston in 1977.
From Experiencing Architecture by Steen Eiler Rasmussen