The Getty Villa By Silvetti Summary

The problem that Silvetti presents at the beginning of his prologue to “The Getty Villa” is one that deserves the most attention to students preparing to leave school and enter the profession – the “problematic relationship with the building that one of us would be asked to resdesign.” Silvetti (and the other architects) were tasked with “designing” a building that already been designed and built – yet they were going through the modernistic throws of the late 20th century where it was believed to be “immoral to copy previous forms.” Yet, despite the assumption from the beginning that his job would be one of copying, in chapter five, when he furthers his ideas on design decisions, you get the feeling that little copying was done. More thought is put into a user’s experience in the building as he orients himself to the site, and becomes aware of his visual surroundings – of how the design decisions relate now only to the past, but how the space will be used
It was deemed non-essential, and in a project where nearly every architectural decision was laid out and carefully executed according to a plan and early sketches and drawings, this ghost had to be laid to rest soon after execution. This dilemma is of direct relation to the original problem that Silvetti and the other “modernists of the 20th century” were faced with – how to take a newly constructed project that is modeled after something 2000 years old, and turn it into something that is still considered uniquely yours. It is a problem that we too are likely to face as we get our professional degree and embark out into the field of Architecture. How does one face this problem and allow your Architecture to come through, while still allowing for the will of the