On Off-squares

Drawing Research

Published in PLAT 8.0: Simplicity


This animated drawing reconstructs several scenarios of “off-square” sites from Sebastiano Serlio’s On Situations. Serlio approaches the problem of site irregularities in practical terms. Each scenario lays out problems an architect might encounter in everyday practice and offers strategies for their resolution: courtyards, stairs, the expressive potential of ‘poche’: these and other elements mediate private property and public space.