Villas

A villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious, upper-class country homes. In modern parlance it can refer to a specific type of detached suburban dwelling.

In the early 18th century the English took up the term. Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio and Inigo Jones, soon neo-palladian villas dotted the valley of the River Thames. In many ways Thomas Jefferson`s Monticello is a villa. The Marble Hill House in England was conceived originally as villas in the 18th-century sense.

In the nineteenth century, villa was extended to describe any suburban house that was free-standing in a landscaped plot of ground, as opposed to a `terrace` of joined houses. By the time `semi-detached villas` were being erected at the turn of the twentieth century, the term collapsed under its extension and overuse. The suburban villa became a bungalow after World War I in post-colonial Britain, and by extension the term is used for suburban bungalows in both Australia and New Zealand, especially those dating from the period of rapid suburban development between 1920 and 1950. The villa concept lives on in southern Europe and in Latin America, where villas are associated with upper-class social position and lifestyle.