Urban Villa Research Articles

Integral methodology for value assessment of the 20th century architectural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The legacy of the 20th century architecture in B&H is unrecognized as cultural heritage which results in great loses of important architectural work. An integral methodology was created with the intention to make the process of 20th century architectural heritage identification and value assessment in B&H systematic and context related. On one side, it is based on the theoretical knowledge that is rooted in charters, documents, and declarations of international and regional background with a stress on the authenticity and integrity of different criteria. While on the other hand, it is founded on the belief that analyses of architectural heritage have an equal representative potential and expertise visibility through graphical and descriptive form. Integral methodology was applied and demonstrated on the case study, the Crni vrh urban villa in Sarajevo, B&H. The results of the research are two folded: the first points out that the international set of criteria for the value assessment is complete only when specificities of the regional context are added; the second one shows that the graphical and descriptive part of value analyses and assessment are equally important and valuable and therefore inherently necessary in the process of creating conservation recommendations for the 20th century architectural heritage.

VALORIZATION OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE NATION THROUGH EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR FORGOTTEN ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENTS - THE URBAN VILLA VLADIMIR HERTA, „BAROQUE PEARL” FROM CHISINAU

The article contains a theoretical study, which reflects the monuments of exterior and interior architecture, being a part of the cultural and historical heritage of a people, and one of the fundamental elements of national identity that connects contemporary society with its valuable and historical past. And their preservation and restoration is the duty of specialists in the field, architects and interior designers, who at the same time, adapting it to modernity, must preserve the grandeur and restore the beauty of the old building, a legacy for future generations. The author comes with the analysis of such a forgotten architectural edifice – Vladimir Herţa Urban Villa (also called Casa Herţa), a true „baroque architectural gem” monument registered in the Register of monuments of national and municipal importance, Register of Monuments of the Republic of Moldova protected by the State. Both the concept and the architectural form of the building, the facade and the interior spaces attracted the public’s attention for its artistic qualities.

Scientific and interdisciplinary method as support for the restoration project. The balustrade steps of Villa Cerami

In this work an interdisciplinary study of the weathering forms of the Villa Cerami balustrade, was carried out with the aim to identify the type and causes of these and to plan conservation measures. The studied balustrade adorns and protects the steps of Villa Cerami garden, which is a suggestive example of 18th century ‘urban villa’, located in the very core of the Baroque Catania. Sadly, these stunning steps, whose magnificence and placement characterises the out-door environment of the building, at present suffer from bad degradation conditions, and the decorative details adorning the baluster are affected by irreversible damage. The causes of this ongoing degradation process are: material features, humidity, pollution and the consumption caused by the activities performed in the building. Since 1957 it has been the location of the Faculty of Law of the University of Catania. In this study, three balusters affected by the main weathering forms (biological colonization, black crust and granular disintegration) recognised in the entire balustrade, were selected. The lithological type and the weathering forms were defined on the basis of an in situ investigation, using respectively the comparison of materials, to identify the calcarenites type, and the Italian norm UNI 11182 along with the Fitzner formalism, to classify the degradation forms. A 3D survey of the selected balusters was performed with a time of flight Laser Scanner HDS300 of the Leica Geosystem with the aim to better define the volume and total surfaces of the material parts affected by erosion. The surfaces affected by black crust, were obtained by means of an image modelling technique. Data were used to calculate the damage indices through equations proposed by Fitzner and the limit at break for crushing. The potentiality of this interdisciplinary approach (architects, engineers and geologists) is shown with the aim to apply it to the restoration of the entire monument. In addition, this interdisciplinary process has been useful to identify the strengths and weaknesses to assess the consequences of design choices with awareness.

O privrednim prilikama u dolini Trebišnjice u antičko doba

We presented here the facts on economy in the valley of the Trebisnjica River and in its surroundings in the antique period. Numerous archaeological findings prove that the valley of the Trebišnjica River was inhabited in the Roman period. On the locality of Panik (valley of the Trebišnjica River) there was a luxurious urban villa (villa urbana), surrounded by several rustic villas (villae rusticae), which leads to the conclusion that the rustic villas were functionally and spatially related to the urban villa. The villas together formed a property. The epigraphic monuments confirm that in the 1st century, in the valley of the Trebišnjica River, there were properties of the Italian family Vesii, ant that these properties were the centers of the great Italian families. The result of the research provides a partial image of the property in Panik. The inhabitants mainly farmed the land, raised cattle, grew wines and did various sorts of craft. The written sources and the archaeological findings indicate basic economic branches in the time of the Romans. There are numerous material findings on economic professions in the valley of the Trebišnjica River and in its surroundings. These testimonies possess great historical value, because they indicate economy in the area of East Herzegovina in the antique period. It can be said that the Roman rule brought significant changes to the social and economic life of the Illyrians. It also influenced the economic development of Dalmatia, evident in improving manufacture, more active economy growth, and in the improvement of the trading and crafts. Thanks to the increased agricultural and crafts' manufacture in Illyria, or Dalmatia, these areas became important exporters of cattle, wood, etc. by the end of the 4th century.

Analyzing Domestic Contexts at Sagalassos: Developing a Methodology Using Ceramics and Macro-Botanical Remains

There has been a renewed interest in the study of domestic space in antiquity, focusing upon the importance of small, (semi-)portable objects and their contexts in order to investigate human behavior. In these studies, the use of domestic space is examined by describing the contents of rooms and by linking these contents to specific activities. This article adds to the discussion by proposing a methodology for interpreting artifact distribution patterns in three steps. First, the architectural subdivision of the space is determined. Second, we assess to what degree the assemblage as found is representative of the original content of a room, by examining the formation processes of the archaeological record. Third, the presence or absence of certain functional categories within the archaeological assemblage is investigated. The application of this methodology to the ceramic and palaeobotanic material recovered from a large urban villa at Sagalassos (southwest Turkey) makes it possible to identify the function of spaces, the social status of the inhabitants and the eventual abandonment patterns on the site.

Humanist Horticulture: Twelve Agricultural Months and Twelve Categories of Books in Piero de’ Medici’s Studiolo

“Humanist Horticulture: Twelve Agricultural Months and Twelve Categories of Books in Piero de’ Medici’s Studiolo.” Piero de’ Medici’s design of his studiolo in the Palazzo Medici, Via Larga, in the 1450s and 1460s is early evidence of the taste for vegetative symbolism within the Medici dynasty. The vaulted ceiling roundels of calendar months by Luca della Robbia, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, highlight productive individual labor both in agricultural fields and in the learned fields of Piero’s twelve categories of manuscripts arranged on desks below. Creating visual cues to his collection, Piero aids observers in finding a subject with his two catalogues, color-coded to match bindings, as well as by a subject’s location under a specific month. The texts of Seneca, Quintilian, Virgil, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, and Battista Guarino help elucidate the analogy between horticulture and culture apparent in Piero’s association of working vineyards with studying objects of antiquity. Filarete honors Piero by describing Piero’s weekly and monthly cyclical ritual of examining his ornamented manuscripts, his effigies of emperors, his jewels and engraved stones, his vases, and his arms and other treasures. Sculpted by Mino da Fiesole in a floral garment, and hiring illustrators to illuminate manuscript pages in vine-stem border and later in a green-tendril border, Piero imitates Pliny the Younger in withdrawing to a rural retreat, granted that it is one in an urban villa as artificial as the perspective intarsia designs of his influential cabinetry. In bequeathing to his son Lorenzo the studiolo with its collection of arts and letters, Piero contributes to the image of Lorenzo bringing about a springtime of arts and letters.

The Villa Dionysos Excavations, Knossos: The Pottery

The pottery found in the Roman urban villa at Knossos (the Villa Dionysos), excavated in 1935 by R. W. Hutchinson and in several post-war seasons by Prof. M. R. E. Gough, is described. The circumstances and context of the discoveries are described, together with a general account of the types of fabric. Many examples are illustrated by drawings, and a full catalogue description is given of them, amphorae being treated separately. The bulk of the material is second century A.D. in date (part of the villa being destroyed in A.D. 170–80, other parts collapsing and being abandoned in the second quarter or middle of the third century A.D.).

Roman Rural Architecture in the Territory of Colonia Iulia Pola

General problems concerning Roman villas and the Roman economy in Histria (Yugoslavia) are followed by a discussion of nine Histrian villas, mainly excavated before 1914. Three types of villas-luxurious, farm-type, and mixed-are distinguished. The farmtype, with a manufacturing quarter, can have two subtypes, i.e. with specialized or mixed processing facilities. The third type has a mixture of agricultural function and luxurious appointments. The Roman rural villa developed as a contrast to the urban villa, when de-urbanization was taking place in the Roman world. Roman society, although rural in its origins, had previously favored urban growth as a means to strengthen its political hold on the Mediterranean. The consequence was a rapid expansion of towns in the 1st century B.C. and the establishment of rural settlements in their territo-