This Macintosh program is the same software used by the authorsof Possible Palladian Villas. After reading the book and learning anumber of interesting aspects to Palladio's work that no other author has ever discussed so clearly I became very curious about this software program and how it generated Palladian villas.

The software -- which is quite dated now and only runs on System 7.x -- is a simple little application that generates Palladian plans using an algorithm created by the authors. This algorithm is based on the principles of planning as determined by an exhaustive investigation of Palladio's villas (44 villas to be exact were used). It can generate an infinate number of permutations based on the metrics of subdivision and proportion used by Palladio. You give the program the total outside dimensions in Vincentine feet and it does the rest.

Facademaker is the part that allows you to choose an appropriate facade type - based on Palladio's range of facade types (approximately three with various derivations). From there exterior and interior openings in the walls are generated.

A very useful tool for an indepth scholarly study of Palladio's architecture. Highly recommended (the book too!)

This was an interesting story, which I did not know a lot about. With more terrorism focus in the media today and the troubles in the Middle East a situation like this could come up again. I also liked the detail of this particular terrorist group, which I think is no longer active. Overall the book was solidly written but not a fast paced page-turner. If you are interested in the time frame or particular event then it is worth reading.

A whole lot of talk about nothing. Self-consciously erudite ("The corpus of plans we will be studying...") attempt to find additional mathematical rules governing room dimensions, etc. (Palladio himself gives the main ones in his famous Four Books.) I'm happy to give the author credit for the large amount of research involved, and I suppose some people might want it for its bibliography.