Hieronymus Fabricius Analysis

Hieronymus Fabricius, a progressive and driven man, sat anxiously at his University of Padua desk flipping through stacks of notes. Fabricius had been up all night rehearsing and defending his dream. Another hour went by until, ready to face The Senate of Venice, Fabricius stood abruptly, folded a few select notes, and took off for the meeting room. Fabricius walked briskly and with intention, he was about to enter a meeting deciding the fate of his hopeful architectural endeavour.
Fabricius, a distinguished scientist and chair of anatomy at the University of Padua, sought to pitch a new concept for an anatomical amphitheatre. He wanted to design and construct the ideal atmosphere for dissection to push academia forward. Fabricius lived during …show more content…
Fabricius starts by describing the current architectural situation, specifically at the University of Padua. Fabricius states “the current facilities are bad by no means but, there is room for improvement in efficiency and scale of these spaces. At this time rooms for dissections were small however, they could fit everything a surgeon like Falloppio needed to make his great discoveries about the tympanum”. He goes on to say that “while these facilities are clearly capable of discovery that they are not capable of accommodating education surrounding anatomy”. This statement was aimed to make both clients see the potential for growth in the facilities. Fabricius goes on to discuss the need for a larger dissection space that can accommodate numerous student observers. Fabricius states that the benefit of having a space where numerous students could view dissections would allow for a greater educational capacity of the institutions as well as the creation of an environment that promotes the cross pollination of ideas. Fabricius concluded his initial pitch and wished for the committees most grateful …show more content…
During the 16th century, projects were often centrally planned and relied “on classical ideals of symmetry, axiality, and clarity”. In addition, “Renaissance architecture is characterized by harmonious form, mathematical proportion, and a unit of measurement based on the human scale”. For the committee the project struggled to appease this desire to achieve an architecture related to the human scale. Fabricius argued that while the seating for the students does not comfortably adhere to the human scale the project as a whole is related to human body. The space is designed to be a space in which “the dead are pleased to help the living”. Formally, the structure as a whole is designed radially from the central surgical table. While the committee was not completely convinced by this idea, with regards to the cramped nature of the student seating, the committee believed the pros of having more students outweighed the cons having tight student