Renaissance

The city, ancient or modern, has shapes and tracings that limit, condition and require relevant design decisions. The architect, very often, during the design process of the building, operates within "batches" of land that require specific solutions by limiting and forcing the project within precise patterns. In the case of historical contexts (centers), this limitation becomes increasingly present and conditioning. Today, as in the past, the architect is called to complete parts of urban lots, trying to optimize the relationship / comparison / integration between new and existing buildings. In the 15th Century, Florence had a great economic prosperity, deriving from the activities in manufacturing and trade. This welfare manifests itself in an intense building production; while it does not lead to a planning or a renewal of the urban fabric, it only encouraged the building of a number of private palaces by the families affected by the general economic development. The fifteenth-century Florence thus, is not affected by extensive and programmatic interventions at "urban scale", but it is only the subject of various re-development projects in certain areas of the city; often in areas adjoining or adjacent to those which are affected by the construction of noble buildings. The important families that give life to this renewal are those of the rich bourgeoisie, which is thriving thanks to the commercial or banking businesses: Medici, Strozzi, Gondi, Rucellai, Peruzzi, Albizi, Alberti that give names to the most important buildings of the Florentine Renaissance. One of the most evident problems arises due to the well-defined urban margins determined by the city walls which creates the complication of finding free land and affordable plots for setting the new buildings on. The rich families, thus, tend to acquire small portions of land or existing buildings adjacent to their homes, mostly the traditional and medieval tower houses (case-torri), to proceed to a substantial renovation of the new spaces and volumes. These constraints were taken in account carefully by the architect in charge who is called to execute the projects. In fact, in the fifteenth-century Florence, there are very few examples of isolated buildings with four open fronts: Palazzo Pitti constitutes the only example which is drawn up by Filippo Brunelleschi. Only a few cases of palaces open on three sides: one for the Medici Family (later Riccardi) by Michelozzo and Palazzo Strozzi by brothers From Majano on a project by Giuliano da Sangallo. The most conspicuous examples of corner palaces: that of the Pazzi Family attributed to Brunelleschi, the Palace Corsi-Horne or that Guadagni-Dei attributed to Baccio d'Agnolo or Cronaca to name a few. The most common typology is constituted by single fronted palaces: one of them is the palace of Rucellai Family by Leon Battista Alberti and Rossellino or the palace of Gondi Family by Giuliano da Sangallo which will be deepened in this paper with its history and evolution of the construction. This research investigates the relationship between the limited urban form and its influences on the design decisions of single buildings. Further, this research aims to identify different building typologies through observing and analyzing the most important interventions of 15th Century in Florence including Gondi Palace.