When I first stepped on a small plantation, I immediately noticed a building that looked very familiar. It had ionic columns and a triangular pediment. The whole front reminded me of another famous building in United States, the White House. The White House was inspired by this building, and the White House is a neoclassical style, a style that revives from the Ancient Greek and Roman and the Renaissance. However, there was a nearly hemispherical dome, but slightly pointed, on this building. Thus, this building reminded me more of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Thomas Jefferson’s architectural design was Palladian, a type of neoclassical style. The designer of the building, Villa Rotunda, was Andrea Palladio. Palladio was one of the most influential architect in the architecture history. Evidently, Monticello and many of the buildings in Washington D.C. were inspired by Palladio. The Villa Rotunda was located on the mainland, near Venice, and it was located in a slightly isolated area on a hill with a magnificent scenic view of gardens and green hills in all direction. It’s a suburban palace currently owned by Mario di Valmarana for recreated, parties, natural retreat and residential living. This building is made of brick, stucco, and wood, and with all these material combined, it’s called marmorino white. When I walked around the building, I noticed that every side is the same. This defines that this building is biaxially symmetrical. In other words, it’s radially symmetrical. This building is obviously from the Renaissance era as it has ionic columns and classical temple style staircases. It has mathematical precision and proportions, circles and squares, which is a trait of classicism. Palladio began sketching out ideas in 1540’s, and the construction began in 1566. The interior is magnificent as it has beautiful stuccos on the ceilings and Enlightenment Age look furniture. The furniture were gold with beautiful fabrics. The building as a whole was beautiful and was definitely an inspiration for many future buildings.

Palladio created numerous buildings throughout his life. He also created Villa Emo, a country home for the Emo family. It was built in 16th century. Like other Palladio’s architecture, this building is very simple, geometrical and rational. There are columns along with a pediment resting on the top of the columns at the front of the building. There is a ramp instead of stairway leading up to the porch. The wings on both sides, have rounded arcades. This shows a very geometrical order as the arcades have a half circle resting on top of the columns. This also shows rhythm in this architectural design. Geometry and rhythm is one of Palladio’s goals in his architectural design.