Annette Condello - The Architecture of Luxury

THE ARCHITECTURE OF LUXURY

series editor: eamonn canniffe, manchester school of architecture, manchester metropolitan university, uk

The discipline of Architecture is undergoing subtle transformation as design awareness permeates our visually dominated culture. Technological change, the search for sustainability and debates around the value of place and meaning of the architectural gesture are aspects which will affect the cities we inhabit. This series seeks to address such topics, both theoretically and in practice, through the publication of high quality original research, written and visual.

Other titles in this series

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David Mayernik
978 1 4094 5767 1

The Architectural Capriccio
Memory, Fantasy and Invention
Edited by Lucien Steil
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The Architecture of Pleasure
British Amusement Parks 19001939
Josephine Kane
ISBN 978 1 4094 1074 4

No Matter: Theories and Practices of the Ephemeral in Architecture
Anastasia Karandinou
ISBN 978 1 4094 6628 4

Building Transatlantic Italy
Architectural Dialogues with Postwar America
Paolo Scrivano
ISBN 978 1 4724 1483 0

Forthcoming titles in this series

Architecture in an Age of Uncertainty
Edited by Benjamin Flowers
ISBN 978 1 4094 4575 3

The Architecture of Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew
Iain Jackson and Jessica Holland
ISBN 978 1 4094 5198 3

Annette Condello
Curtin University, Australia

ASHGATE

Annette Condello 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Annette Condello has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited
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England

Ashgate Publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Condello, Annette.

The architecture of luxury / by Annette Condello.

pages cm. -- (Ashgate studies in architecture)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4094-3321-7 (hardback: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4724-3422-7 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-4724-3423-4 (epub)

1. Architecture-Human factors. 2. Architecture and society. 3. Luxury. I. Title.

NA2542.4.C655 2014

720.108--dc23

2013044884

ISBN 9781409433217 (hbk)
ISBN 9781472434227 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN 9781472434234 (ebk-ePUB)

This book offers an architectural interpretation of luxury. Concentrating on the architectural venues for pleasure, it traces the myths and application of luxury within architecture, interiors and designed landscapes. The basis of the book is a set of six historical categories of luxury sybaritic, Lucullan, architectural excess, rustic, neoEuropean and modern all related to the built and unbuilt environment. Each theme is defined in the context of luxury and takes into consideration different cultural contexts and historical periods. Architectural luxury is either an unqualified benefit or something present within strict limits. The book identifies areas where representations of luxury were realized or vanished, in Italy Sybaris, the Bay of Naples, Rome, Florence and Venice. It argues how the ideas of permissible and impermissible luxury have informed architecture and how they change from one context to another.

Myths about ancient Sybaris entered the realm of architectural history as a story of the origins of luxury and its use was subsequently criticised in a range of architectural venues not only in Italy but also elsewhere. Rustic Italianate forms emerged in the Ancien Regime through the works of Sebastiano Serlio at Fontainebleau and then as broken or rickety forms at Chambourcy and Trianon Gardens. Europeanized luxury transformed Latin American architecture in Manaus, Recife and Mexico City. And in the United States, suburban Riversides and Chicagos luxurious architecture became more modern because the cities were inspired by sybaritic myths. In all of these contexts the book distinguishes the relations between specific notions of luxury and the practice of architecture. Providing voluptuous settings for the nobles and the leisure class, luxury took the form of not only grand palaces, but also follies, country and suburban houses, private or public entertainment venues and ornate skyscrapers with fast lifts. This resulted in a continuous prompt to indulge still further in luxury.

Annette Condello

This book had its genesis many years ago while dining in a small house designed by Italian architect Francesco Venezia perched on top of a grotto in Posillipo, overlooking the Bay of Naples. Inserted into its sinuous interior, lined entirely with walnut timber panels, was a large palm fossil. This exquisite insertion sparked the idea of researching the topic of luxury. Over a number of years, I discussed luxury with various people. At times I did meet some who were completely uninterested in the topic and rejected luxurys attractiveness. This helped me to think about luxury more deeply and consider the myths about construction, especially how they helped shape architectural venues.

The topic of luxury enlarged when I flipped through an old Conde Nast Traveller magazine. There, in a review of New Yorks luxurious Carlyle Hotel entitled Suite Dreams, I pondered the term sybaritism. By 2003 my project evolved into a PhD dissertation, completed at the University of Western Australia. Interjected by a year-long stint at the National University of Mexico financed by the Mexican Government, in April 2004 I attended the Society of Architectural Historians 57th Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States. There, a session was dedicated to luxury and I met Marc Trieb and Kristine Miller and I thank them for inviting me to visit Americas gilded palaces, The Breakers and Marble House.

I thank Marco Frascari, Fernando Moreira and Rebecca Earle for their generous and critical comments. I am also grateful to Allen S. Weiss, Neil Leach, Michele Sbacchi, Catherine Kovesi, Christopher Berry, John Dixon Hunt, Michel Baridon, Keith Eggener, Luis Carranza, Wim de Wit, Rachel Fletcher, Jeffrey Needell, Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo and Juliet Odgers for their suggestions or useful references.

While I was conducting my research, I had the opportunity to present sections of this work at many venues. They include: the Old Tate Gallery in London, Favara Castle in Sicily, National University of Mexico, Australian National University, University of Boston, University of Bordeaux, University of Adelaide, Universidad de Brasilia, the Universidad de Pernumbuco and the Mexican Embassy in Canberra. I thank all those who guided me with suggestions. For the generosity in offering me their hospitality I thank Bibi Leone, Ugo Ballerini, Fernando Moreira, John and Janis Notz, Carmen Popescu, Nancy Steiber and Henry Kuehn. I thank the director Silvanna Luppino of the Sybaris Archaeological Museum in Calabria, specifically Isora Migliardi for a personal tour of Sibari. I am grateful to my partner, Christopher Vernon, for his support, intellectual generosity and reading of earlier drafts.