Fondazione Querini Stampalia
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Building information
Designer: Carlo Scarpa
Program type: Museum
Project budget: $?/sq.ft.
Calle Larga Santa Maria Formosa, 5252 30122 Venezia (Veneto), Italy 041 2711411
Building Analysis
Building Overview
The Fondazione Querini Stampalia was founded in Venice 1869 by the last descendant of the Venetian Querini Stampalia. The site is composed of the living quarters, an archive, a library, and a museum of paintings and furnishings. In 1949, the Presidential Council of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia decided to begin the restoration of some parts of the Palazzo Querini. Malino Dazzi, director of the foundation, tasked Carlo Scarpa to restore the ground floor, which was in a state of neglect and decay. The project was completed just over ten years later, under the direction of Giuseppe Mazzariol, a friend and supporter. The restoration project included careful cleaning of four existing architectural elements: the bridge, the entrance, the portico and the garden. [1]
Designer Influences
Carlo Scarpa (June 2, 1906 - 1978) was an Italian architect and glass and furniture designer, influenced by the materials, landscape, and history of Venetian culture. His architecture is deeply sensitive to the changes of time, from seasons to history, rooted in a sensuous material imagination. [2] His museum renovations exhibit his minimalist style within historic buildings, a style that allows the existing context to pass beneath and behind the new work without being disturbed. However, it was not the invention of spatial themes with which Carlo Scarpa was involved, but rather the manipulation of materials in relation to the human body. [3]
Detail Analysis
The axis running parallel to the canal dominates the entrance space. Light from the watergate pulls the visitor along the axis and into the central space which is essentially a cross-over of routes from the watergate to the 'androne', now the main exhibition space, and from the entrance to the exhibition room in the north-east corner. All the elements of Scarpa's design can be seen from this point.
Scarpa introduced the experience of water directly into the building through the two arched gates which he lined with identical steel and brass hinged grills. Each gate contains three opening grills, the center element made narrower and taller than its neighbors so that it can be distinguished from them. Steel rectangular bars form the main structure of the gates themselves and vertical brass rods connect them to the stone arched surrounds. In contrast, short horizontal brass rods are used in the grill in each gate. The light catches the play of vertical and horizontal brass as well as forming an overall complex pattern of light on dark reflected in the water, transferred to dark on light at night. The effect is reminiscent of Islamic patterned window grilles. Apart from the bridge the grills are the only noticeable part of Scarpa's renovation to appear on the facade.[4]
References
Notes
- ↑ http://www.querinistampalia.it/
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Scarpa
- ↑ http://architect.architecture.sk/carlo-scarpa-architect/carlo-scarpa-architect.php
- ↑ Querini Stampalia Foundation Carlo Scarpa by Richard Murphy
Student contributions
- Kristyn Ivey, Spring 2010
External links
Additional resources
