The central building of the villa is framed by two symmetrical long, lower colonnaded wings, or barchesses, which originally housed agricultural facilities, like granaries, cellars, and other service areas. This was a working villa like Villa Badoer and a number of the other designs by Palladio. Both wings end with tall dovecotes which are structures that house nesting holes for domesticated pigeons. An arcade on the wings face the garden, consisting of columns that have rectangular blocks for the bases and capitols. The west barchesse also contains a chapel. The barchesses merge with the central residence, forming one architectural unit. This typological format of a villa-farm was invented by Palladio and can be found at Villa Barbaro and Villa Baroer.