Future Venicere-imagining preservation in the archived city

Pamela TroyerB.Des, Emily Carr University, 2011

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree of

Master of Architecture

in The Faculty of Graduate StudiesSchool of Architecture and Landscape ArchitectureArchitecture Program

Committee

Christopher Macdonald (Chair)Sherry MckayPeter Carter

Christopher Macdonald B.ES, AA Dipl (Hons)

Sherry Mckay B.A., M.A., P.hD

Jan 2016 / Pamela Troyer / University of British Columbia

We accept this report as conforming to the required standard

2

3Future VeniceRe-imagining Preservation in the Archived City

iii

Abstract

This project began as an inquiry into notions of architectural authenticity and its connection to Western based practices of material preservation. In the process of examining architectural precedents that in some way contained a response to an artifact, what arose continuously was a limited palette of responses by architects, usually bound by the memorializing and framing of fragments. These precedents are explored in depth in the first portion of this document.

Looking closer, the elevated status of ruins and fragments is a complex subject, tied to elaborate, historically ingrained systems of power. Architectural preservation as it relates to disciplines of higher standing curation and archaeological studies as well as deeply ingrained and pervasive global anxieties, should not be underestimated.

Places in which there is a high degree of material restraint and a resistance to change share a few common outcomes, most notably the replacement of local populations with transient ones. Considering these strange and negative effects led to questions as to what might constitute the broader progress of a place.

Venice is a unique context in many respects, but here the focus became its elaborate systems of control by various political bodies from the municipal to the international.

There are many locales in which preservation practices are extended, but hardly any tied to such a deeply ingrained fear of loss. It is a prime example in which the outcome of touristic invasion and population loss can be traced alongside an over extended illusion of care.

This thesis is, in a very general sense, an attempt to temper the anxieties of building within locales of high control whilst becoming inextricably linked to the specificities of Venice.

The work found in the architectural component of this project is an attempt to reconcile a method of architectural preservation

iv

which denies material restraint and instead favors an ongoing, living history. Through a narrative medium, this project attempts to look both backward and forward, exploring the outcomes of two Venetian palaces. This projection surrounds the possibility of slow changes accruing over time, the narrative events becoming rooted in the Venetian traditions of iterative building and circumstantial adaptability.

vi

Table of Contents

iii Abstractvi Table of Contentsvii List of Figuresx Acknowledgements

graduation project: part i 2 introduction Thesis Statement

8 field of inquiry Protection Data Value Preservation vs. Heritage Sanctioned Spaces Practice Myth Rubble Context Environment Tourism

30 architectural issues

theoretical precedents Roman Archaeological Center Ningbo Museum Church of Reconciliation Insertions into Shells Contemporary Japanese Houses Ise Shrine Relocation of Kiruna

48 site Archive / Image Intervention Disaster Geography Building Conditions Representation Unbuilt Projects 62 contemporary projects in venice Punta Della Dogana Palazzo Grassi

graduation project: part ii

74 presentation content

Introduction The Story of Venice The Story of the Palazzo Don Giovannelli 164 appendices Presentation Boards Bibliography Figure Sources

vii

List of Figures

part i

introduction

1.1 Tourism in Venice (1999)

field of inquiry

2.1 Timeline of Preservation Movements2.2 Corruption in Evidence Presentations2.3 Evolution of the Highline, NYC2.4 Preservation vs. Heritage2.5 Sanctioned Spaces2.6 Conflict in Representation2.7 Ruin vs. Debris2.8 Scale of Aggregate and Ruinous Leftovers in Contemporary Wall Details2.9 Tokyo (1960s) vs. Venice (2000s)2.10 Tsunehisa Kimura, Waterfall2.11 Touristic Futures

theoretical precedents

3.1 Atelier Peter Zumthor3.2 Amateur Architecture Studio 3.3 Timeline of the Church of Reconciliation3.4 Evidence constructions of the Chapel of Reconciliation3.5 Chapel of Reconciliation: Project Photographs3.6 New Into Old3.7 The Japanese House3.8 The Ise Shrine: Traditions of Rebuilding3.9 White Architecture: Relocation of Kiruna

site

4.1 Venice, Italy: Islands and Density4.2 Areas Under Protection4.3 Margheras Industrialization vs. San Marco4.4 The Embankment Islands and Three Major Inlets4.5 Construction of the Foundations and Sub-structures4.6 Nostalgic Sunsets4.7 Utopian Flooding4.8 Le Corbusiers unbuilt master plan for the hospital San Giobbe (1964)4.9 Contemporary rendering of Venice, without and with Le Corbusiers plan (2014)4.10 Model for Louis I. Kahns Unbuilt Conference Hall at the Giardini Publici (1968)4.11 Italian Architecture Group 9999s idyllic representation of Venice (1972)4.12 Yona Friedman, Venice, City on Stilts (1969)4.13 Peter Eisenman, plan for Cannaregio West (1978)

contemporary projects

5.1 Past Imagery vs. Tadao Andos Punta Della Dogana5.2 Project Construction and Resultant Space5.3 Interior and exterior of the Punta Della Dogana5.4 Punta Della Dogana, Tadao Ando: Project construction5.5 Tadao Ando, Palazzo Grassi

viii

part ii

presentation content introduction

6.1 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Venice Indicated6.2 Venice Timeline: Major Events, Preservation Movements, Population, Tourism6.3 Venice through time6.4 Aerial Map of Venice, Sites Indicated 6.5 Doges Palace, 1730-39 Cannaletto, Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day6.6 Doges Palace, 20156.7 Palazzo Don Giovannelli, 1500s6.8 Palazzo Don Giovannelli, 2015

the story of venice

7.1 Fire at the Doges Palace, 15167.2 Lithograph Print of the Doges palace, Pink Columns7.3 Regatta on the Grand Canal7.4 Palazzo Don, Engraving by Coronelli7.5 Flooding at St. Marks Square7.6 Outside the Doges Palace, 20157.7 Aerial Imagery of the Doges Palace, Venice, 20157.8 Site Imagery, Palazzo Don Giovannelli, Venice, 20157.9 Site Plan, Palazzo Don Giovannelli, Existing Condition7.10 Quatrefoils, Upper Loggia

the story of the palazzo don giovannelli

8.1 Timeline of Events8.2 Ground Level Plan, + 6 months8.3 Arrival Inside the Upper Loggia8.4 Upper Loggia, +6 months8.5 Front Entryway, +6 months8.6 View From Tourist Bridge, +6 months8.7 Back Garden Well, +6 months8.8 South-East Elevation, +6 months8.9 North-East Elevation, +6 months8.10 Ground Level Plan, +5 years8.11 View from Small Bridge, + 5 years8.12 South-East Elevation, + 5 years 8.13 North-East Elevation, + 5 years8.13 Building Section, + 5 years 8.14 Ground Level Plan, + 10 years8.15 View from Small Bridge, + 10 years8.16 Back Garden Well, + 10 years8.17 Front Entry, + 10 years8.18 View from Small Bridge, + 10 years8.19 Structural walls, Film Stills8.20 South-East Elevation, + 10 years8.21 North-East Elevation, + 10 years8.22 Building Section, + 10 years 8.23 Ground Level Plan,+ 20 years 8.24 View Towards Small Bridge, +20 years8.25 View from Small Bridge, +20 years8.26 View from Tourist Bridge, +20 years8.27 South-East Elevation, + 20 years8.28 North-East Elevation, + 20 years8.29 Building Section, + 20 years 8.30 Building Transitions Over Time8.31 Front Porch, + 20 years8.32 Aerial Imagery of the Doges Palace, Venice, 20158.33 Faades Through Time

ix

appendices

9.1 Detail of Hand Drawing, Front Faade Changes, 1847 - 20359.2 Presentation Boards (1-2)9.3 Presentation Boards (3-4)9.4 Presentation Boards (5)

xAcknowledgements

Thank you to my mentors, Christopher Macdonald and Sherry Mckay, for their thoughtful insight and guidance. Their experience afforded a certain depth, nuance and clarity to the project that it would otherwise not contain.

Thank you to Peter Carter, for his keen sensibility and support.

Thank you to Catherine He and Jonny Ostrem, for lending their time and expertise.

Thank you to my studio mates, Rory Fulber and Stephanie Matkaluk, for our many impromptu critiques.

Special thanks to Mari Fujita, Marie-Claude Fares, Greg Johnson, and others who lent support in their cameo appearances throughout the term.

12

1Future VeniceRe-imagining Preservation in the Archived City

Part I

2Introduction

Much in the same way that it was conducted, this research is organized from the more general to the more specific. The content ranges from the broader, more global exploration of precedents, to the specifics of how preservation is practiced in a particular place.

Theories of preservation have analogous concerns which, for the sake of brevity, are expressed in part by the Field of Inquiry section. These issues, as they become expressed by architects through buildings, are further explored in the Theoretical Precedents section. These examples intend to show the range of ideas about conserving or preserving tradition by means of the articulation and manipulation of built fabric.

Venice contains a range of site specific peculiarities. The section, Contemporary Projects, displays current projects which are contextually specific to Venice. The second part of this document hopes to synthesize these wider notions and site specifics. This research is meant to exist in support of the part II project materials.

3Do not assume that order and stability are always good, in a society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born, the old must perish. This is a dangerous realization, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. But that is part of the script of life. Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves begin to die, inwardly. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. And that is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism which can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new.

Philip K. Dick

1Bryans, Thomas Stoney. Life, Death, and a Sustainable Future, RIBA (blog), The Royal Institute of British Architects, 2011.

4Thesis

Preservation tactics as we have come to practice them cannot contain the changes which are necessary for sustained cultural and environmental progress.

Here, progress can be defined as that which encourages the inhabitants of a place to continuously adapt in order to create a society of longevity and endurance.

In projects which seek to re-make historic fabric, strict regulations act as a diversion from other consequences: the creation of new touristic economies and the commodifying of experience. The re-evaluation of demolition as a necessary act - and not one to be feared - can help to ensure the productive social and environmental contiguity of cities.

This thesis surrounds the shifting cultural practices of the Venetian lagoon and the effect of its relegation to a protected city. I propose that Venice can and should regain its capacity to change culturally and physically, and that these two things may evolve mutually. Here Ill project a potential outcome based on the present condition and, through a narrative surrounding two opposing Venetian Palaces, explore an alternate future rooted in Venices past traditions of iterative building, and circumstantial adaptability. This future spans from the present day to twenty years from now, signaling the potential for change through new kinds of human migration through Venice.

Tempering the tension that has accumulated in the formulation of socially enforced biases and judiciously enforced policies as to what should be made of existing fabric is intended as a critical outcome of this research.

5Archive Cities

Western notions concerning the preservation of cultural arti-facts have contributed in the creation of archived sites, cities and neighbourhoods appearing in a condition of stasis.

This picture of stasis is reflected in Li Shiqiaus description of the archive city. Shiqiau outlines a specific set of conditions where materiality is directly tied to memory, and where memories are rooted in ruins. An archive city, functions like an archaeological site, with located and authentic fragments at its foundation of knowledge. In this definition, preservation serves to retain, collect and display fragments while cultivating intellectual and social prestige by authoritative discourses. Shiqiau describes how, the preservation of locations is deeply meaningful in sustaining systems of values, processes of legitimation, and centres of power.

In the archive city, where authenticity is readily discussed as truth, value attributions are performed by a select few and may serve an underlying aim, financial or political. What in one place could be referred to as debris, in an archive city might be given the more culturally elevated status of a ruin.

The conditions produced in which built fragments are considered authentic are such that an enormous amount of anxiety is produced over the circumstances in which these fragments can be lost.2 The physical inevitability of decay in combination with a collective unease creates the rarefied and readily commodifiable experience of viewing something which is considered fragile.

Hardly anywhere else is the nobility of decay more elevated than in Venice. The preservation of the atmosphere of a broken empire works advantageously to its under diversified touristic economy, but also has contentious cultural and environmental repercussions (fig. 1.1). To exist day to day as an active participant of an archived city means forfeiting the creative manipulation of ones own built fabric and responding to pressing environmental factors in a restrained and singular means.

Globally, architects have participated in archiving as an elevated, 1Shiqiau, Li. Memory Without Location Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand 19, no. 2.: Sahanz & Li Shiqiau, April, 2010. p. 6.

2Shiqiau, Li. p. 7.

6intellectualized discipline in the re-building and re-making of historical sites and fragments.

The architect has taken on the role of an arranger of artifacts, contributing to curated narratives about the interrelatedness of materials and memories. Culturally ingrained notions about the preservation of historical sites and fragments have led to projects produced by architects that succumb to a limited palette of modes and methods. Memorializing the past in the form of material homages, inserting new technology into old shells, and creating celebratory programs that emphasize present triumphs over the tribulations of the past have all become common responses.

This project aims to further unpack pervasive, overarching attributions of value and their related authoritative restraints in the archive city, in order to re-evaluate the role architecture has to play within the policies of preservation.

7fig. 1.1 Tourism in Venice, 1999

8Field of Inquiry

9protection

Preservation, under the guise of cultural advancement, is now commonplace not only in sites deemed special by organizational bodies like UNESCO, but also environmental areas and many, arguably banal, urban districts. By some estimates, twelve percent of the worlds surface is in some way conserved.4

Although preservation measures would appear to be concerned primarily with times past, Mrinalini Rajagopalan suggests, that preservation as it is now systematically implemented is complementary not contradictory to modernity. Here it is suggested, that the primary concepts for understanding its implications are, firstly, fabricated notions of authenticity as begun in the mid 19th century, and secondly the role of institutional regulation. Rajagopalan states:

The urgency to preserve historic monuments as authentic documents of the past, was a product of modernization rather than a reaction to it. Moreover, in order to implement the values of authenticity and historical accuracy so that they could be commonly understood by amateurs and experts alike, these abstractions had to be instrumentalized and managed via the bureaucracy of modernity such as institutions, charters, policy regulations, etc.

As ideas about authenticity in the late 19th century were being developed by philosophers and historians, industrialization was fundamentally changing the physical environments of the Western and non-Western world, and architectural monuments began to occupy a prominent place in narratives of civilizational progress and national identity. In the 20th century, the rapid processes of industrialization and the widespread destruction of two world wars, had immediate and tangible effects, prompting reactionary protectivist causes.2

The Venice Charter (1964) led into a series of organizational acts which effectively mobilized a global movement towards retaining the buildings of the past (fig. 2.1). The occurrence of the 1966 floods in Venice brought an even greater, more widespread

1Rajagopalan, Mrinalini. Preservation and Modernity: Competing Perspectives, Contested Histories and the Question of Authenticity The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory, 2012. p 3-5.

2

Rajagopalan, p.11.

10

3Lemaire, Raymond. Un Regard en Arrire, Un Coup dOeil en Avant. ICOMOS Scientific Journal, 1995.

4OMA. Progress Venice Biennale 2010: Cronocaos, Italy, 2010.

attention to the matter, contributing to an already existing sense of loss and a pressing anxiety about the future.

The Venice Charter is now fifty-one years old. At some distance, its faults and successes are now in our collective view. The language of the initial document - its lack of specificity in certain articles - is subject to high levels of interpretation and manipulation. Its existence, as a set of guidelines to be taken up by nations in the form of laws, is ultimately malleable. While subsequent documents aim to provide clarity and distinction, such as in the Nara Document of Authenticity (1994), the Venice charter is still considered the base and the essence from which other codes, bylaws and charters emerge.

It is crucial to consider this document as a living one. Architectural preservation exists in a longstanding but constantly evolving narrative. The ideological evolution of various charters and acts, show alongside it, an evolution of authority in deciding what will be of importance tomorrow. Raymond Lemaire states of the Venice charter in its current state in 1995:

Charters are fashionable. They are considered to contribute to directing action. However they never contain more than the minimum on which the majority has agreed. Only exceptionally do they cover the whole of the issue which concerns them. This is the case with the Venice Charter.3

In essence, these documents are a reflection of the time and place in which they were produced and should, in no way, be considered objective in nature.

11

1900 1930 1960 2000

Collective Memory Machine

- a collective nationalist sentiment

Question ofAuthenticity

(Mid to late 1800s)

UNESCO (1945)

ICOMOS (1965)

Burra Charter (1979)

ICCROM (1956)

Post-Modernism

Fragmentation of linear notions of

history

Reflection on histories of marginalized

populations(Burra Charter)

Global touristic practices foster ambivalence

Revising of the Venice Charter

Dark Tourism

Critical discussion of urban processes,

gentrification, urban theming, heritage as civic

boosterism

INTBAU (2006)

Nara Document of Authenticity(1994)

IAESTE (Present)

Edward SaidVenturiJencks

Violet-le-DucJohn Ruskin

Le CorbusierMarinetti

Jane M. JacobsRem Koolhaas

Paris World Expo(1881)

Society of Architectural Historians

(1940)

Reconstruction in the City of London

(1947)

Athens Charter(1931)

Venice Charter(1964)

Rise of Capitalist economies

Individualism

Search for authentic documents of irretrievable

pasts

Response to industrial revolution

Concept of a homeland

Historic monuments, landscapes and

cities had the ability to arouse national

sentiment...

fig 2.1 Timeline of Preservation Movements

12

research and data manipulation

In traditional preservation projects, a time stamp is placed on the object, attempting to freeze it at any given point. This inherently conservative act arguably dispels of the building as a living object, one which can and will degrade with the passage of time. It is an artificial, hypothetical manipulation as buildings, old and new, exist as a pastiche of many times. As first built, not every component of a new building would likely stem from the same year, or decade.

This practice of freezing requires the architect to demonstrate a particular kind of historical research, one which attempts to hold true to an original. The renovator is forced, either to decide on a point in time in which the original first existed, or opposingly, to allow different stamps of time to exist as an amalgamation of materials and styles. In the case of mixing periods (allowing accumulation), the architect can take the form of an authority in historical precedents and research, and can contribute political notions about value to old pieces of architecture.

In the act of attempting to choose a single time stamp, the architect must still make the decision as to what time the building should refer to. By appealing to other discourses, archaeological, historical and curatorial studies, the re-making of ruins and buildings in decay may further an authoritative narrative or become co-morbid with value manipulations.

13

X

X

XX

O

OO

O

X

Choosing a start and end in a time seriesCherry Picking

fig 2.2 Corruption in Evidence Presentations, Diagram from Edward TuftesBeautiful Evidence

14

value

How we attribute value to left over structures, abandoned buildings and site debris is hardly static. Value is manipulated based on its economic potential, its position as a cultural commodity, and its perceived importance as usable or re-programmable space. Not only the fetishism of ruins and relics, but the manipulations of the market, increases the drive to re-establish and re-make sites at all levels of importance.

15

1847 1930

2000 2011

fig. 2.3 Evolution of the Highline, NYC

16

preservation vs. heritage

Preservation as something which seeks to retain, shelter or keep for the future is confused with notions about heritage, which seeks to purport cultural values or further a tradition. The perceived interchangeability between these terms allows for much miscommunication. Preservation as a synonym for authenticity and heritage as an act of camaraderie with the past exist together in a gray area.

17

Using a humidity tester on a flood damaged artifact in Florence, 1966.

Red lamp posts added circa 1980s Chinatown, Vancouver.

fig. 2.4 Preservation vs. Heritage

18

sanctioned spaces

Hand in hand with the museumification of space is the designation of certain places and buildings as more important than others, more reflective of artisanship, more culturally relevant. What this achieves is an elevation of past power structures in the weaving of old narratives into the present day. In the designation of spaces, we also find the creation of areas which are known to be intended as illusory. As in the case of any theme park, or heavily curated area, the suspension of disbelief is a necessary element in most archived environments.

19

San Rocco Magazine, Turnstiles David Gissen, Museums of the City

fig. 2.5 Sanctioned spaces

20

practice

Negotiations about urban palimpsests thus occur under conditions of chronological confusion. Architecture, the profession that as a whole has no rear-view mirror, often finds itself in a counter-productively adversarial relation with those who consider themselves to be acting in historys name.5

Bill Millard

As preservation theory participates in a number of overlapping discourses - sustainability, archeology and anthropology - ruinous architecture is subject to the hand of many noble causes and competition in their practical application. In a developmental economy, decaying structures undergo the participatory involvement of numerous project stakeholders. Here the role of the architect comes into question. As a professional in the realm of service, but also one entrusted to make good ethical decisions, the architect is caught in a contentious web of varied intellectual integrity, economic potential or concerns, structural deficiencies, and code abidance.

5Millard, Bill. Rem Koolhaas: Preservation, Politics and Progress. Designbuild-Network. Sept 2011.

21

fig. 2.6 Conflict in Representation

22

myth

There is no want to preserve the old without a certain admiration for the past. The symbolism imparted on the future in retaining the past assists in the creation of a static image. In architectural restoration, myths about a place develop as they would in any curated representation of past events.

Contemporary buildings in decay are not readily referred to as ruins. Their decline being too much a part of recent memory. In referring to buildings as decayed or as ruins, they are afforded a new authority in the historical canon while being stripped of their social utility.

23

fig. 2.7 Ruin vs. Debris

24

rubble

Using the old in the construction of the new takes on literal implications at varying scales. The practice of using rubble as an homage allows the implementation of a certain kind of framing, the metabolizing and re-animation of what exists.

The fetishism of rubble, usually always in the form of robust materials - stone and brick - aims to signify both the passage of time and an optimistic notion about a reconciliation of a tormented past. By emphasizing the fragility and violence of fragments, an authoritative optimism is intended. Strangely, the permanent seeming materials of traditional ruins are used to convey poetic notions about the nature of transience.

25

fig. 2.8 Scale of aggregates and ruinous leftovers in contemporary wall details:Above: Kolumba Museum, Below: Chapel of Reconciliation, Ningbo Museum

26

context

In spite of the seemingly homogeneous theories of preservation worldwide, different locales and their respective planning committees devise unique theoretical positions for dealing with what is considered important to retain. Strategies ranging from archival neuroticism to razing without sympathy are manifest in different nations, the results ranging from the insufferably practical to the deeply philosophical.

As an example, preservation theory in Venice is quite unlike preservation theory in Tokyo. Japan is in a unique position with regards to preservation: buildings with extremely short lifespans can be found next to protected temples. From building to building, cultural attitudes differ with regards to notions about the old and decayed. As an example, Jiko Bukken properties, in which the former occupant has died of unnatural causes, are stigmatized and sold at a discount. Contrastingly, decay as purported in the concept of wabi sabi, the admiration of imperfection and patina, creates some conflicting notions about Japanese values with regards to obsolescence and the passage of time. A multiplicity of conditions might suggest that conflicting preservationist ideologies can exist side by side, and moreover that these values are adjustable and in flux.

27

fig. 2.9 Tokyo (1960s) vs. Venice (2000s)

28

tourism

Inseparable from a discussion on protected environments is the incessant demand and wear placed on delicate infrastructure and structures by a consistent movement of tourists. The heavy influx of people in places not initially designed to support such demands is an escalating issue.

Venice is an extreme example of this kind of wear. As large cruise ships enter into the lagoon at an increasing number, foundational structures succumb to degradation. These cruise ships are considered by many to be an eyesore. Venices economy is primarily touristic, yet what is necessary to support its financial sustenance is considered unaesthetic. Steps are taken to hide away or divert such mechanisms. Infrastructurally imperative systems, such as the MOSE flood barrier which lies flat underwater, are deliberately unseen engineering works. These exist hidden, allowing the mystifying aura of a bygone era to continue above the surface. The juxtaposition of advanced capabilities underneath and past fragments above, demonstrates that the economic viability of Venice, depends not on its progressing in the conventional sense, where infrastructure updates would normally be visible without a second thought. Instead, the necessary infrastructure to support a very particular, illusory patina must be maintained. The charm of the ancient superstructure cannot go unabated, and cannot admit what occurs in the perilous environment beneath the surface.

29

fig. 2.11 Touristic futures

30

Architectural Issues

31

Theoretical Precedents

Church of ReconciliationPeter Sassenroh, Rudolf Reitermann

Evidence Construction and Representation

Roman Archaeological CenterPeter Zumthor

Attitudes toward Sites

Ningbo MuseumWang Shu

Rubble as an Homage

Dovecote StudioHaworth Tompkins

S(ch)austhallFNP Architekten

Insertions into Shells

Contemporary Japanese Houses

Ise Shrine

Alternative Conceptions of Tradition

Relocation of KirunaWhite Architecture

Memory and Place

32

Roman Archaeological Center, 1985-86Atelier Peter Zumthor

Attitudes Toward Sites

Zumthors Roman Archaeological Center is indicative of a particular notion about preservation wherein it is explicitly stated within the architectural moves that new structures may not touch the old. This idea, as displayed in the apparent levitation of the staircase (fig. 3.1), depict new and old together in a delicate, tentative balance. This project embodies the notion that one should take care of the ruinous past. This balance is highly ideological, as the very creation of a building on a site which cannot be touched or worn by visitation is strangely contradictory.

33

fig. 3.1 Peter Zumthor, Roman Archaeological Center

34

Ningbo History Museum, 2008Amateur Architecture (Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu)

Rubble as an Homage

The walls of the Ningbo Museum are composed of the rubble from villages which were demolished in the process of government re-zoning for a new public area, fronted by this museum. The exterior faade, for which the building is best known, is a complex material agglomeration expressed both with a modernist control and an opposing fragmentation. This shell can be read as both a literal and metaphorical accumulation of history. It is a gestural statement not only towards the past, but to the future. The simultaneous reflection on the conditions of loss necessary for this museum to exist expresses an outright concern with the condition of the social and economic progression of architecture as a practice in China. Cole Roskam describes how Shus work, ...insists that when we talk about material, were really talking about the far-flung and complex economic and social systems required for their fabrication, the cultural and political factors at play in their re-presentation as architecture, and the agency they achieve through subsequent reception and interpretation. The Ningbo Museum performs mimetically between the building form and its contained program: a museum of natural history. It is, in essence, the formation of an ironic statement through material homage.

1Roskam, Cole. Structures of Everyday Life Artforum 52, No. 3. Nov. 2013. p. 254

35

fig. 3.2 Amateur Architecture Studio (Wang Shu + Lu Wenyu)s Ningbo History Museum

36

Chapel of Reconciliation, 2000 Peter Sassenroh, Rudolf Reitermann

Evidence Construction and Representation

The Church of Reconciliation (1894) became a symbol in Berlin on the occasion that it became caught in a highly unusual position: marooned between the Soviet sector and the French sector, isolated between two sides of the Berlin wall. The German Democratic Republic destroyed the church in 1985, the widely publicized footage of its destruction only transforming the church further into a martyr. In 1989, after the wall fell, the decision was made to re-build the church. Thus, the Chapel of Reconciliation was created in its place.

The Chapel of Reconciliation by Berlin architects Peter Sassenroh and Rudolf Reitermann, displays some very particular modes of discourse with regards to how the new building pays homage to the history of the site. Special attention is paid to the ground as the footprint of the former church is displayed on the plaza concrete, the boundaries of the wall also indicated. The rubble of the former church is said to exist in the aggregate of the interior concrete structure, while a new fence is erected at the location of the wall composed of core-ten posts set apart so one can pass through.

These moves are deployed so as to create highly politicized resolutions, highlighting past violence in new materials while attempting to offer respite. These narrative moves are an addition to an ongoing dialogue of memorialization in Berlin through architecture: objects specifically designed to reconcile. The combination of monument/building creates a programmatic tension and stoic optimism. Through an evidence narrative, the chapel becomes a functional monument which appears to engage in a conversation on history, while at the same time inadvertently closing it.

37

1970s1960s

1899 1945

1985 1985

fig. 3.3 Timeline of the Church of Reconciliation

38

Original church footprint Original wall footprint

fig. 3.4 Evidence constructions of the Chapel of Reconciliation: exaggerated footprint of previous structures

39

fig. 3.5 Chapel of Reconciliation

40

1 Dovecote Studio, 2009 Haworth Tompkins

2 S(ch)austhall, 2005 FNP Architekten

3 Studio Posehuset, 2010 Svendborg Architects

4 E/C House, 2015 Sami Arquitectos

Contemporary European examples: New into Old

Insertions into Shells

These few examples, of which there are increasingly very many, are found in Britain, Germany, Denmark and Portugal. They represent at the core a culmination of architectures increasing propensity to treat site remains with varying degrees of faadism in Europe and elsewhere. It represents a fascination with the old in conjunction with a desire to imprint on it. These examples leverage the past for their aesthetic implications as the vernacular ruins, pictured opposite, have no other role to play in the functional existence of the new, technologically and environmentally sound insertions.

41

1

2

3

4

fig. 3.6 New into old

42

Contemporary Japanese Houses

Alternative Conceptions of Tradition

1 House N, 2011 Sou Fujimoto

2 House in Hiro, 2009 Suppose Design Office

3 House in Kohoku, 2008 Torafu

4 House in Saijo, 2009 Suppose Design Office

5 House T, 2012 Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects

A culture of demolition, a lack of restriction in retaining mundane fabric and the acceptance of short building lifespans has, in part, aided in the facilitation of creative expression and new form making by contemporary working architects in Japan. This attitude fundamentally counters the pervasive Western practice of emphasizing historicism through the - at times obsessive - retaining of fragments. Within the context of programmatically simple, domestic architecture, the European examples found in previous pages show a distinct admiration for the past and a reverence for site through the reticence of materials. Opposingly, the Japanese house appears to focus on the contiguity of cultural values through the seemingly evolving processes of habitation. In these cases, the reverence for site is embodied in the ability to use it effectively as both a statement of newness and an ongoing dialogue of creative progress between private individuals and architects.

6 Kumagai House Hiroshi Kuno + Associates

7 Library House Shinichi Ogawa & Associates

8 NA House Sou Fujimoto

1Townsend, Alastair, Why Japan is Crazy About Housing, ArchDaily, November 21, 2013,

43

1 5

2 6

3 7

4 8

fig. 3.7 The Japanese House

44

Ise Shrine, 2013 (62nd iteration)

Alternative Conceptions of Tradition

The Ise Shrine in Ise, Japan is systematically and strategically dismantled and exactingly re-constructed on an adjacent site every twenty years in accordance with the traditional principles of the Yuitsu-shinmei-zukuri style of building, an ancient mode of building devoted specifically to this shrine. The reason for this can partly be attributed to the Shinto concept of wabi-sabi, which emphasizes impermanence, the progression of time and decay, contiguity and rebirth. Reconstructing the shrine means that it may at once be simultaneously eternally old and eternally new. The recognition of time as a cyclical entity opposes the theoretical underpinnings of projects such as the Chapel of Reconciliation, which strategically frames and delineates between past and present. The Ise Shrine refutes the dialogue presented by contemporary Japanese houses in its presentation of the old, yet it again de-emphasizes the retaining of original material. The Ise shrine enforces the importance of a contiguity through traditions which are ritualistic, not static.

45

fig. 3.8 The Ise Shrine: Traditions of rebuilding

46

Relocation of Kiruna, OngoingWhite Arkitekter AB, Ghilardi + Hellsten Arkitekter

Relocation and Movement

Kiruna is a small town in the high North of Sweden in which mining is the primary basis of economy. What was not known at the time of the towns construction, however, was that the iron ore was to be found primarily underneath the town itself. As mining related subsidence began to be understood as a threat to above ground structures, the decision was made to relocate the entire town. In 2007, a phased plan was devised and the migration, 3 km eastward, began.

Most of Kirunas buildings are subject to demolition. However, buildings deemed to be of some importance to the towns identity are instead partially deconstructed and transported. The city hall, for example, is proposed to be systematically cut into quarters and re-assembled in the new location.

The situation conjures questions about the effectiveness of displaced buildings to passify the inhabitants of Kiruna in the context of their rapidly occurring loss. The process creates a trusting relationship between the towns inhabitants and the architects who must facilitate this movement. The projects glossy presentation images take a position on preservation as utopian, raising further questions about the nature of the projects representation as idyllic (fig. 3.9).

47

fig. 3.9 White Architecture: Relocation of Kiruna

48

Site

49

venice, italy

Archive/Image

Venice is a unique example of temporal stasis brought on by acts of urban archiving and a demonstration of the outcomes wherein a static image is continuously proliferated. Venice is, at once, depicted as mythic and fragile while, simultaneously, engaged as a touristic heterotopia. Alongside its image, the city fabric as a physical fragment is engaged in archival and archaeological discourses. These two modes of existence display conflicting attitudes towards authenticity. While one modus operandi degrades city fabric, the other seeks to contain it. These two processes are not opposed however, in that the idea of Venice as an archive appeals to those who would seek it as a destination. Of course, Venice is also a context where day to day life can occur. The routines and traditions of Venetians must exist alongside their economical investment in the high level processes of the archive city and the popular proliferation of the image.

Intervention

Although the museumification of cities is evident worldwide, as a consequence of environmental complications, Venice undergoes protective measures, scientific analysis, and overall scrutiny at a level of complexity most other places cannot attest to. This is particularly evident in the testing and modeling efforts of scientific and expert councils drawn on by high level organizations like ICOMOS (an advisor to UNESCO). Through the issuing of expert advice to the Italian government, a bureaucratic trickle down begins from the national level to the municipal. All of this is subject to re-interpretation along the way by established tiers of governance and numerous special councils created especially for Venice.

50

fig. 4.1 Venice, Italy: Islands and Density.

51

1Somers Cocks, Anna. Whos In Charge of Venice? No One. The Art Newspaper. Oct 8, 2013.

2Scappettone, Jennifer. Killing the Moonlight: Modernism in Venice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. p. 68-71

The Venice lagoon is said to have been historically built up as a Roman outpost from the invading Huns. These early inhabitants used its unique geographical situation for a protective advantage: building foundations on wooden piles, iteratively re-building water barriers and manipulating the canals by selectively covering and draining them. In the context of Venices current position as a protected site subject to layers of bureaucracy, these acts of intervention into the lagoon environment could not occur today in the same rapidly responsive and ultimately innovative fashion.

Disaster

This complexity of political intervention, in part, stems from the immense fear of loss triggered by the devastating flood of 1966. The reaction resounded in Venice, though Florence, too, was badly affected. Although prior protection efforts were already being set in place worldwide, little else could have exhibited the vulnerability of the city as twenty four hours of water raised two meters above ground. The recalibration of Venice as an entity to be saved was fully solidified by a critical report published by UNESCO in 1969 that, declared a state of emergency which provoked over fifty organizations at all levels to engage in, assess and report on the damage.2

After this most devastating flood - Venice still floods to a lesser extent on a seasonal basis - architecture as a profession of innovation and creativity was seemingly halted. The effect architects have had on the city, from 1966 onward, have primarily been within the realm of the theoretical and the temporary: exhibits, pavilions and competitions.

52

Geography The fish-shaped historic center of Venice is tightly woven and densely built. One hundred and twenty-four interconnected islands are sporadically joined by foot bridges. Transportation via the canals and bridges govern the city. In the center, walking is the exclusive mode of land transportation. Paths are narrow, way finding is intuitive. Intricate connective tissues - covered arcades, courtyards and walkways bordering canals compose navigable areas. This main conglomeration and the surrounding waters up to the coastal mainland compose the Venetian lagoon as protected by UNESCO and their appointed local committees (fig. 4.2).

The primary economic basis for Venice is tourism. Other periphery regions, not under such severe control, further support the economic functions of the city. The industrial port of Marghera, fish farming to the north and south of the lagoon, and also the artisan areas of Murano and Burano are, physically and economically, set apart from the tightly woven center.

The famous environmental conditions of the lagoon itself are highly complex and not at all static. Changeable conditions range from the degradation of salt marshes, subsidence from past welling, and pollution both current and past, to the loss of control over flood waters. The vibration of boats from all uses also contribute to the foundational degradation and afflict protected architectural structures. In recent years, cruise ships have further aggravated the dislodging of foundations.

Human intervention in the lagoon ecosystem is not only a by-product of industrialization, but a historic practice. Manipulation of the geography and water conditions has been occurring since the area was first inhabited around the 5th century.

1Scappettone, Jennifer. Killing the Moonlight: Modernism in Venice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. p. 116

53

fig. 4.3 Margheras Industrialization vs. San Marco fig. 4.4 Embankment Islands and three major inlets

fig. 4.2 Areas under protection

Mestre

MargheraVenice

Cavallino

Lido

Lido-Pellestrina

Adriatic Sea

Lido Inlet

Malamocco Inlet

Chioggia Inlet

54

Peculiarities of Venetian Conditions-- Building scale

The details of the foundational support for inhabitable areas are varied, although the most ubiquitous conditions appear on the opposite page. The city buildings and walkways are firstly supported on wooden stilts set deeply into the lagoon mud. These posts do not decay due to lack of exposure to oxygen. Moving upward, there are layered wooden pieces, a base of Istrian stone marble, then masonry and other subsequent building materials, usually stone and stucco.

The base levels of buildings are continuously re-negotiated and re-leveled with changing water conditions, the lower parts of buildings being subjected to the effects of weathering and water ingress. All types of conservation efforts must, in some way, respond to these unusual and varying circumstances.

55

fig. 4.5 Construction of the Foundations and Sub-structures

56

Representation

Venice epitomizes the image of a crumbled empire, a romantic canal journey into a setting sun. Venice, with its water damaged buildings and chipped off bits all around, embodies this mythic image not in spite of, but because of the constant threat of loss. The fragility of Venice, the idea that it once was, but no longer is, provides an overarching atmosphere of nostalgia which is conveyed and disseminated globally. This idea about mythic fragility finds its way through to all kinds of popular and high culture devoted to shaping an artistic vision of a place: postcards, paintings, and architecture competitions.

57

fig 4.6 Nostalgic Sunsets: Postcard (date unknown) & JMW Turner, Maria della Salute (1844)

fig 4.7 Utopian Flooding: Venice Cityliving competition & Evolo Roots of Venice, 2070 Competition

58

Unbuilt projects

The role of high architecture within the city since the 1960s has been devoted - quite prolifically - to representation and not physical alterations, except in a few cases of note - such as the projects of Carlos Scarpa.

Restriction on building within Venice peaked immediately following the 1966 flood and the drafting of the UNESCO charter in 1969. Scarpa had moved from Venice a few years prior, and Venice became void of its most well known figurehead. This began somewhat of a blank space in history for new architectural projects within the city.

Protective measures are not the only reason for a lack of contemporary examples since 1969. Delicate environmental conditions and the immense cost of demolition and construction also contribute. To add to this, financial, political and environmental issues in Venice are, and have been, entwined together in a complex web of bureaucracy.

High architecture has not been ignoring Venice. The hosting of the Architecture Biennale semi-annually since the 1980s exemplifies a conspicuous presence. However, the participation of theory in a seemingly elevated, far off space - not the physical manipulation of buildings - is indicative of underlying politics.

59

fig. 4.8 Le Corbusiers unbuilt master plan for the hospital San Giobbe on the edge of Cannaregio (1964)

fig. 4.9 Contemporary rendering of Venice, without and with Le Corbusiers plan implemented. Dionisio Gonzlez (2014)

60

fig 4.10 Model for Louis I. Kahns unbuilt conference hall at the Giardini Publici (1968)

fig. 4.11 Italian Architecture Group 9999s idyllic representation of Venice as a dry site with natural infill, comparable to Superstudios depictions of Florence (1972)

61

fig. 4.12 Yona Friedman, Venice, City on Stilts (1969)

fig. 4.13 Peter Eisenman, plan for Cannaregio west with Le Corbusiers unbuilt hospital (1978)

62

Contemporary Projects

63

Recent Developments in Venice

Recently, there has been a resurgence in the development of a few high profile sites. Tadao Andos renovations of the Punta Della Dogana and the Palazzo Grassi, both for French billionaire Franois Pinault, are part of a handful of contemporary interventions. Strictly speaking, these are both revitalization projects. The existing building, renovated to become the Punta Della Dogana as it is today, is one of many possible sites that were once of imperial importance but have been left abandoned for long stretches of time. In-depth manipulations of the foundational structures, selective re-conditioning of the faades and the traditional restoration of exterior sculptural work starkly contrasts the highly manipulated and polished interiors of both these projects.

The industrial areas of Venice, areas with lower stakes in terms of their redevelopment, have also seen intervention. Such is the case with Santiago Calatravas bridge on the edge of the Venezia Santa Lucia train station. The bridge curiously punctuates the transition from an area of transport - not normally included in romantic depictions of Venice - to one which more closely embodies the decaying, old world architecture of Venice. Tadao Andos two projects, which exist in this closely scrutinized area, are explored in the following case studies.

64

fig 5.1 Past imagery vs. Tadao Andos Punta Della Dogana

fig 5.2 Project construction and resultant space

65

Punta Della Dogana, 1677, renovated 2009Tadao Ando

Contemporary Projects

Examining Venetian projects of recent years, Tadao Andos Punta Della Dogana is an unrivaled precedent in its display of complexity from its construction challenges to its political ones. Its completion marks a distinctive turn in Venice towards an optimism characterized by cultural and intellectual growth. The most telling remarks come from Massimo Cacciari, mayor of Venice at the time of the project completion. He states:

[The project] provides confirmation of the validity of the focus on a possible Venice, on this determination to make the city a place where the historic past and innovation are not mutually exclusive - where, indeed, high standards of conservation are guaranteed not be sterile restrictions but by the highest levels of innovation.

Cooperation of all involved seems to make this project part of the possible Venice described by Cacciari who emphasizes the special role art and culture have to play within the city. He adds, [it is] true, this role might often be neglected or slighted in the presence of the sheer weight of the citys historical artistic heritage. Yet, Cacciaris cooperation enforces that it is a step forward. He patriotically adds, Venice stands as an example to all historic cities striving to maintain the ever-shifting balance between the requirements of past and present. The amalgamation of past and present is truly an ongoing theme both as expressed by Massimo Cacciari and by Tadao Ando in his wider body of work.

Situating the project within a wider context of Venices cultural and intellectual growth is understandably characteristic of the press content which accompanies the Punta Della Dogana and the Palazzo Grassi. To partake in a moment of skepticism, one can examine this projects embodiment of a possible Venice. This buildings complex sub-surface construction, equally

1Punta Della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi: Press Kit. Franois Pinault Foundation. 2009.

66

fig 5.3 Interior and exterior of the Punta Della Dogana

67

complex restorations, high level of interior and exterior polish, unique logistical setup for construction, and overall exacting execution could not have been achieved without a sizable budget: twenty million euros.

Compliance with preservation policies was seemingly of a slight, although certainly not total, malleability. The exterior is conserved in a highly traditional manner as exemplified in the renovation of brickwork and statues. However, the interior plan is necessarily altered to support the new program, most notably in the addition of a massive, central concrete column. Attention to the control of humidity and water is not in any way sacrificed: the requirement not to alter existing walls meant the addition of a new sub-surface space to support the complicated systems controls which might normally be put overhead.

68

fig 5.4 Punta Della Dogana, Tadao Ando: Project construction

69

70

Teatrino of Palazzo Grassi, 1778, renovated 2006Tadao Ando

Contemporary Projects

What is perhaps most striking about the Palazzo Grassi, both in its divergence from traditional charters and from the scrutiny of execution seen at the Punta Della Dogana, is the degree to which the interior spaces display futuristic form making. The interiors are slick and highly stylistically opposed to the exterior conditions of the buildings.

The interior of the Palazzo Grassi, again the product of collaboration between Francois Pinault, Tadao Ando and the committees of Venice, subscribes to many of the same conditions necessary for the completion of the Punta Della Dogana. As primarily an interior renovation, this project appears to be less complex in terms of construction.

71

fig 5.5 Tadao Ando, Palazzo Grassi

72

73

Future VeniceRe-imagining Preservation in the Archived City

Part II

74

Presentation Content

What follows is a transcript of the thesis presentation, given on December 17, 2015. This portion summarizes points made in the preceding introductory content and leads into the project narrative. The presentation slides accompany the text in the same fashion.

75

Project Introduction

Venice is home to a rich history, but exists now as a rather un-diversified touristic economy driven by its global image and perceived authenticity (fig. 6.1).

We can trace the rise of tourism and the decline of a native population of Venetians alongside the major floods of the century and the movements that arise as a response. We can see the sharp rise in tourism in the last decade and the sharp decline in population, these things together at a breaking point, seeking to eclipse each other (fig. 6.2).

Venice is undoubtedly defined by its water, but this is not a project about sea level rise or flooding. We can recall that the water of the Venetian lagoon has been lived with by its inhabitants for centuries, and that Venetians have lived and adapted to the water, advantageously using it for transport and fortification. The inscription of the water as a threat to the material history of Venice has altered how the city is viewed, and further contributes to the singular narrative of material stagnation.

In Venice, the will to protect has had a strange effect, its material stagnation aiding in the promotion of the city as a broken empire, a rarity subject to environmental loss at any moment.

76

fig. 6.1 UNESCO World Heritage Sites

77

78

189018801870 1900 1910 1920

Tourists Per Year(millions)

Population of Venice

1895 - Venice Biennale

1866 - Kingdom of Italy Established

1861 - Venezia Santa Lucia Railway Opens

6

60,000

2

20,000

10

100,000

14

140,000

18

180,000

fig. 6.2 Venice Timeline: Major Events, Preservation Movements, Population, Tourism

1930

1932 - Venice Film Festival

1931 -Athens Charter

79

1980 19901940 20001950 20101960 1970

1960's - Ban on Welling

1966 - Major Flood

WW II, only areas outside the lagoon suffer damage.

1933 - Ponte della Libert Bridge Opens

2003 - Major Water Barrier Project

1945 - UNESCO

1956 - ICCROM

1964 - Venice Charter

1965 - ICOMOS

1979 - Burra Charter

1987 - Venice Listed under UNESCO

1994 - Nara Document of Authenticity

2006 - INTBAU

80

The old city of Venice is a collection of islands built up on an ancient foundation of wooden piles which sits at the centre of a lagoon.

Venice was at the height of its imperial power the 13th century, so very many facades and buildings date to that time, they are conserved in a highly traditional fashion, unalterable in decoration and layout. Under the UNESCO guidelines and Venice Charter, the lagoon conforms to some of the strictest guidelines in the world.

All transport in and around these islands takes place walking or by boat. The city is attended by an overwhelming amount of tourists, this number ever increasing. The consequences of this heavy, transient migration creates an enormous physical strain on the city, degrading the built fabric and foundations.

There are somewhat set directives for tourists, who find themselves on very specific routes throughout the city towards important monuments, like the Doges Palace. The city appears, in some sense, frozen, although this is quite a limited perspective. Venice has seen dramatic cultural shifts, and perhaps nothing so rapid as in the past fifty years (fig. 6.3).

81

fig.6.3 Venice through time

82

This thesis surrounds the shifting cultural practices of the Venetian lagoon and the effect of its relegation to a protected city. I propose that Venice can and should regain its capacity to change culturally and physically, and that these two things may evolve mutually. Here Ill project a potential outcome based on the present condition and, through a narrative surrounding two opposing Venetian Palaces, explore an alternate future rooted in Venices past traditions of iterative building, and circumstantial adaptability. This future spans from the present day to twenty years from now, signaling the potential for change through new kinds of human migration through Venice.

This project discusses two palaces, referencing the famous Doges Palace, while studying in depth the mostly unknown palazzo Don Giovannelli (fig. 6.4).

The Doges palace aims to represent a kind of archival extremity, a place of importance, now one of many global hyper monuments (fig 6.5, 6.6). The palazzo Don is quite a generic fourteenth century palazzo found off a tourist street in the district of Cannaregio. Here we see its oldest documentation in the centre of this etching (fig. 6.7). This Venetian palace, now empty, is representative of Venices generic urban condition, persistently in support of a larger network of monuments, without being accorded the same archival value (fig. 6.8). Here I work with the abandoned palazzo Dona in depth, exploring its past, present and future.

83

fig. 6.4 Aerial Map of Venice, Sites Indicated. Palazzo Don Giovannelli (upper), Doge's Palace (lower)

84

fig. 6.5 Doge's Palace, 1730-39 Cannaletto, Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day

85

fig. 6.6 Doge's Palace, 2015

86

fig. 6.7 Palazzo Don Giovannelli, 1500's, zoomed in view from the De Barbari Map of Venice

87

fig. 6.8 Palazzo Don Giovannelli, 2015, Google

88

89

The Story of Venice452 - 2015

90

Seeking refuge from wave after wave of successive invasions, residents of coastal towns flee from the Huns to a marshy wetland, far on the coast, reachable only by water and sparsely inhabited save for a few strange fisherman - lagoon dwellers.

These refugees build for themselves a fortification on a bed of wooden stilts. Logs, plummeted into the deep clay of a sparsely inhabited wetland, support the foundations of new islands, which grow in size and accrete in number. Canals allow for the transport of goods in and around these islands.

Soon its the late fourteenth century and Venice is a site of mercantilism and trade, ruthless in its stronghold. The Doges Palace is built as a fortification, the first building symbolizing the Venetian empire, the most visible building in the city. The Doges Palace burns down, several times in fact. It is no problem, however, for a vast empire to rebuild something. With each rebuilding the palace changes, becoming more Byzantine (fig. 7.1).

91

fig. 7.1 Fire at the Doge's Palace, 1516

92

Venetian gothic originates as luxurious stones and marbles are pillaged from Constantinople, and simply attached to the facade. A set of pink marble columns indicates in the upper loggia where the Doge stands, addressing the crowds beneath (fig. 7.2). The daily happenings and grander events of Venice are seen and known publicly framed by these columns. Elsewhere in Venice, smaller palaces seek to imitate this display of power on facades of their own through the seemingly required byzantine and gothic detailing.

93

fig. 7.2 Lithograph print of the Doge's palace, Pink Columns

94

Its 1538. The Palazzo Don Giovannelli is built. It is of no importance relative to the Doges palace, but it is grand for its scale. Palace like these are built to house important families of Venetian government.

There are very many palaces like it.

The Palazzo Don Giovannelli houses the family of Guidobaldo II. It is here that Giudobaldo commissions Titians Venus of Urbino, it is here that he succeeds his father following an untimely poisoning and here that very many luxurious parties are held in the upper loggia, overlooking the Rio Di Noale. The Palazzo is heavily decorated on the interior. There is a large circular staircase, an open courtyard, and an impressive Murano glass chandelier.

Time goes on, and its the 1750s. King Frederik of Denmark visits the palazzo with an entourage of fifty people (Fig. 7.3). He admires the palace such that, when he returns home, he builds his own palace to look just like it. Venice enters its era of touristic glory, now seen as a locus of Italianate allure. As part of the grand tour, people visit all the time. The many rooms of the palazzo see people come and go.

95

Fig. 7.3 Regatta on the Grand Canal in Honor of Frederick IV, King of Denmark, Luca Carlevarijs

96

As the palazzo is acquired by Don after being passed from hand to hand, its decided to extensively renovate in 1847. Part of the interior is demolished and the front facade is curiously altered, its windows shifted and removed in order to gain a more desirable symmetry. Here we see the palace in its pre-renovated state (Fig. 7.4).

97

Fig. 7.4 Palazzo Don, Engraving by Coronelli

98

Its 1966, and a defining moment occurs. There is a flood. A very large flood. Venice has flooded, but not like this. People walk around in water to their shoulders. The palazzos ground floor floods, art floats all around. This event cements the view of the city as fragile and susceptible to loss.

The Venice charter has already begun enforcing a halt on building. No interiors may be altered, let alone facades. Everything that is, must remain.

After centuries of pillaging, trade, occupation, works of art and some peace, all of this is silenced by this relatively inconsequential event (fig. 7.5). Architectural movement within the city stands still. At this moment, the palazzos 1847 renovation would no longer be possible. At this moment, Carlos Scarpa has built his last project in Venice, and decides to leave. The flood of Venices mythic ruination comes, truly, as a flood of Venetians, fleeing their own city.

99

Fig. 7.5 Flooding at St. Mark's Square

100

fig. 7.6 Outside the Doge's Palace, 2015

101

fig. 7.7 Aerial Imagery of the Doges Palace, Venice, 2015

102

Aerial Imagery of the Doge's Palace, 2015

fig. 7.8 Site Imagery, Palazzo Don Giovannelli, Venice, 2015

103

Aerial Imagery of the Doge's Palace, 2015

Its the year 2000. The Doges Palace is a museum. Where Napoleon once stormed the palace, there is a ticket counter and a set of turnstiles. Where he once threatened to become an Attila to Venice, there is a small planning office housing city documents. The building is no longer a setting for empires or wars, it is merely a monument to these things (fig. 7.6).

Its 2015. In a sea of tourists, the lineup for the Doges Palace stretches for a very long time. Venice has only recently become the newest cruise ship destination. Now, tourists match Venetians in number (fig. 7.7).

The Palazzo Don sits boarded and shut. No one lives here. It appears as though no one has lived here for a very long time. Nothing stirs at the palazzo, yet there is movement all around the building, which sits at the confluence of two canals. These canals offer the only close up view of the palaces two most visible facades (fig 7.8).

104 fig. 7.9 Site Plan, Palazzo Don Giovannelli, Existing Condition, 1:750

105

106

fig. 7.10 Quatrefoils, Upper Loggia

107

A corner is visible where the Rio Di Santa Fosca and the Rio Di Noale meet. There is a slight fondamenta, or small sidewalk, on which one can stand opposite the palace. The rest of the building is encased at all street entrances by a seemingly impenetrable, high wall. This wall encloses a neglected backyard garden. Venetians and others use a small bridge to the north-east to access private buildings and other small streets. Near this small bridge, there is an out of commission public well and a cafe with a patio, looking into the back garden wall. From the large bridge, carrying tourist traffic, the palazzo is visible on an angle (fig 7.9).

Visitors pass by this strange ruin en route to monuments, places theyve been told to see. The palazzo sits still.

There are very many ruins like it.

For a brief moment, a glimpse can be caught of the palazzos decaying quatrefoils, boarded windows and ground level doors, which have been ripped apart from water damage during its decades of closure.

Large swaths of plant life grow from the walls. Water leaks into the ground floor. The building exists only as a real estate listing. The cost of reconstruction far outweighs the cost of the palazzo itself (fig. 7.10).

108

109

The Story of The Palazzo Don Giovannelli

2015 - 2035

110

fig. 8.1 Timeline of Events

Vene

tian

Empir

e

King

Fre

derik

Visi

ts

Nap

oleon

Inva

des

Palaz

zo R

enov

ation

Floo

dPa

lazzo

Don

shu

t

1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

Byza

ntin

e Dog

es P

alace

Cons

tructe

d (1

172 -

1577

)

Palaz

zo D

on C

onstr

ucted

(153

8)

111

2015 2020 2025 2035

Crui

se sh

ip to

urism

Refu

gees

in It

aly

Min

or in

frastr

uctu

res b

uilt

Som

e Jou

rney

Nor

th

Form

alize

d Li

ving S

pace

s on

Uppe

r Lev

els

Info

rmal

resta

uran

t beg

ins

Min

or st

ructu

ral d

amag

e

loss o

f UN

ESCO

statu

s

Gond

olier

busin

ess fl

uoris

hes

Base

open

ed w

ith co

lum

nar s

uppo

rt

Form

alize

d re

nova

tions

Gond

olier

empir

e

112

In six months, the palazzo will no longer be empty. As the shifting movement of human populations all over Europe culminates in the most unexpected places, this overflow cannot be contained. The democratic distribution of people throughout the continent places a small percentage of refugees in Italy. First, this distribution is contained only to rural places, towns with rapidly declining populations in need of people, newcomers, to work in agricultural landscapes.

As Venices native residential population rapidly deteriorates, a small, new resident population is introduced. A few individuals arrive. Suddenly there are many more. Newcomers arrive steadily, with meager means and an industrious fervor.

+ 6 months

1:400

AdditionsSubtractionsExisting

113

+ 6 months

fig. 8.2 Ground Level Plan, + 6 months

114

+ 6 months

fig. 8.3 Arrival inside the upper loggia

115

+ 6 months

Seeking refuge from wave after wave of successive invasions, these outliers build for themselves minor infrastructures within the abandoned Palazzo Don Giovannelli to survive (fig. 8.2).

Every floor of the Palazzo Don is filled with people (fig. 8.3, 8.4, 8.5). There is room for around two hundred, who create makeshift sleeping spaces, barricading the broken doors, keeping the water out.

116

+ 6 months

fig. 8.4 Upper loggia, +6 months

117

+ 6 months

fig. 8.5 Front entryway, +6 months

118

119

People assemble in the inner courtyard and backyard garden. The common well at the back garden wall is co-opted and used to gather water from ancient aquifers (fig. 8.7). Facilities are makeshift. The palazzos new life is not a very well kept secret, but complaints fall on deaf ears (fig. 8.6). There is no mayor in Venice, the Italian government trapped in a state of re-iterative, cyclical corruption.

Opposite Pagefig. 8.6 View from tourist bridge, +6 monthsfig. 8.7 Back garden well, +6 months

120

fig. 8.8 South-East Elevation, + 6 months

+ 6 months

121

+ 6 months

fig. 8.9 North-East Elevation, + 6 months

122

Time passes. Its been five years since the Palazzo Don has been inundated. As the triage subsides, some palazzo inhabitants decide to journey further north while some visas are revoked. What people remain decide to make the best of the situation.

About fifty people remain at the palazzo, sparse considering the vast square meterage of the palace (fig. 8.10). Success as boat repairers has provided something of an income.

Many have learned some Italian, although frankly this wasnt really necessary. The tourist population has far eclipsed the population of local Venetians and most of all communication is occurring in broken English. The cruise ship influx has only grown to become unbearable.

+ 5 years

1:400

AdditionsSubtractionsExisting

123

+ 5 years

fig. 8.10 Ground Level Plan, + 5 years

124

+ 5 years

fig. 8.11 View from Small Bridge, + 5 years

125

At five years past, the palazzos living arrangements become more formalized. People inhabit the upper level floors where Guidobaldo II once had his portrait painted, where the King of Denmark admired the staircase, and where the global tourist machine once saw the potential of a bed and breakfast.

126

fig. 8.12 South-East Elevation, + 5 years

+ 5 years

127

+ 5 years

fig. 8.13 North-East Elevation, + 5 years

128

+ 5 years

fig. 8.13 Building Section, + 5 years

129

+ 5 years

The preoccupations of the Palazzo Dons inhabitants are humble and self serving. Many have begun work repairing gondolas, and have a reputation for being the best, better, in fact than the original builders. Part of the back wall is demolished in order to create a working area (fig. 8.11, 8.12). Here, boats are dragged inward from the adjacent canal into the garden. Areas flooded by water on the ground level become sheds for in boats in progress. This marks a change to the long facade, a brutal entryway at the furthest corner, supported by a mixed structure of wood and steel. On a side already ravaged by water ingress, removing material from an area initially used as communal showers did not seem such a loss. At this point, some boat builders have become very skilled at wielding a gondolier oar, and, when accosted by tourists, do not refuse taking them out for a spin.

130

People work in the back garden, and assemble in the courtyard, their discussions unceasingly optimistic (fig. 8.13). People eat together here. Sometimes, the smell of food which wafts from palace is encapsulating and exotic. Tucked away to the immediate interior of the buildings front facade, an informal restaurant is devised. This is a hidden place, known but not visible within the district of Cannaregio. The inclusion of food differing from that of the traditional Italian specialties soon becomes somewhat of a guilty pleasure for Venetians.

Its ten years past the first newcomers arriving to the palazzo (fig. 8.14). At a higher, more bureaucratic level, something dramatic has occurred. Lack of compliance with the demands set out by UNESCO in managing the relentless influx of heavy tonnage cruise ships has meant a loss of official status as a world heritage site. These ships continue to shake the foundations of Venice. As the wooden posts on which Venice stands quietly dislodge, private touristic enterprises do not subside. The Venice Charter exists, but goes unenforced. Private international organizations whose sole purpose since the seventies has been to save Venice, are powerless to enact laws, and aim only to save themselves.

The restrictions on new building becomes tenuous and strained (fig. 8.15). Not only can alterations not be controlled at a higher level, there is no longer any one left to enforce them. Venice is not the site of a new chaos, or a fear played out, but a new and uncharacteristic air of freedom.

+ 10 years

1:400

AdditionsSubtractionsExisting

131

+ 10 years

fig. 8.14 Ground Level Plan, + 10 years

132

+ 10 years

fig. 8.15 View from Small Bridge, + 10 years

133

+ 10 years

This, for the palazzo, means opportunity. As the household gondoliering business expands, so too does its spatial needs. Plans for the crude hole in the long facade are executed, expanding the boat shelter to the back garden (fig. 8.16). This creates new interior space for covered work and a stable outdoor platform made of bricks from the former garden wall. Available construction materials acquired from other demolitions at the palaces interior support this new covered area adjacent to the garden, a double beam is added as interior support walls are removed.

134

135

The confidence found in this first major renovation quickly snowballs into other ambitious plans. A new long spanning loggia at the base of the building, a public face to the palaces hidden bistro, is devised for the buildings front face (fig. 8.17, 8.18).

Opposite Pagefig. 8.16 Back Garden Well, + 10 yearsfig. 8.17 Front Entry, + 10 years

136

+ 10 years

fig. 8.18 View from Small Bridge, + 10 years

137

+ 10 years

Soon a process of iterative wall removal and columnar support to compensate begins. At the corner of the Rio Di Noale and the Rio Santa Fosca, the bricks are removed. A temporary metal support is put in, and painted with marine paint in pink, no doubt a colour left over from a rather novel boat project.

A surprise occurs. Plans to open up the restaurant to the main public face of the building are delayed as a minor loss of structural integrity occurs in the removal of a load bearing wall. The upper floors shift slightly, causing alarm. Oversized steel columns are quickly added to replace this wall.

In Venetian palazzos, as it is quite soon discovered, the support of the structure is found in the interior masonry walls running parallel to exterior canal bridges, and not the facade. These walls run perpendicular to one another, forming somewhat of a grid. The facade is merely a that, a surface leaning inward, tied to the structure of the floors. The facade can be punctured freely, but caution must be extended to this interior structure (fig. 8.19).

138

fig. 8.19 Structural Walls, Film Stills

139

140

fig 8.20 South-East Elevation

+ 10 years

141

+ 10 years

fig 8.21 North-East Elevation

142

+ 10 years

fig. 8.22 Building section, + 10 years

143

+ 10 years

Wary of making further adjustments, those formally trained in building are involved from this point on. The palazzo plans are found in the darkest corners of the internet. With these, the building begins to be better understood. New lines accumulate as areas become revised. The loggia is moved to the long face of the building for fear of creating further damage on the delicate front (fig. 8.20, 8.21, 8.22). A colonnade is devised to support the facade as the base level is opened up, soon, other minor punctures occur at the upper levels, opening the living spaces. A corner quatrefoil opening at the upper loggia, once bricked in with concrete, regains its life as a window.

144

Ancient palazzo rubble finds its way into new renovations. As the wall comes down, locals at the nearby cafe intermittently observe changes, their skepticism evolving to a distinctly Venetian indifference - a restrained inspiration. The mutual acknowledgement that something new is occurring in Venice seems palpable, and for Venetians, strangely optimistic. It is a time of testing, accretion in some areas, demolition in others. Trips are made back and forth to the Venice city planning office, as new alterations are proposed and executed by both the palazzo residents and the builders who help them see it through.

+ 20 years

1:400

AdditionsSubtractionsExisting

145

+ 20 years

fig. 8.23 Ground Level Plan,+ 20 years

146

+ 20 years

fig. 8.24 View Towards Small Bridge

147

+ 20 years

At twenty years on, alterations occur in a formalized way (fig. 8.23).The legitimacy of the palazzo as a residence and venture is affirmed both in terms of official paperwork and as a physical presence within the city. Once ad hoc modifications become architecturally formalized as a new publicness comes to fruition. Those who arrived to the palazzo as children begin to take on more serious roles in running the businesses of the household. New administrative areas are created, alongside a small library near the tourist street of Strada Nova. Outdoor additions are made, a patio space and extended staircase are created in concrete at the base, the foundations of which would not have been possible to manipulate without help from other municipal bodies in charge of maintaining the canal walls (fig. 8.24).

148

+ 20 years

fig. 8.25 View from small bridge, +20 years

149

+ 20 years

fig. 8.25 View from small bridge, +20 years

The directional spans of the boat area have changed, demolished walls replaced by a wooden truss, finally devised with a bit of patience. Initial i-beam supports are removed, and are laid down in the working area, creating a raised platform. The trades and traditions of visitors, those who come to work from afar, now have an expanded arena. A new guild of alternate gondoliers has been set up.

150

+ 20 years

fig. 8.26 View from tourist bridge, +20 years

151

+ 20 years

Tourists look on. Glimpses to the interior spaces from outside are revealed to the adjacent canals and the nearby footbridge, people working and eating together (fig. 8.26).

What was once the curious odor of food wafting through Cannaregio, is now a formalized place to eat, attended by a new population of younger Italians, Venetians, and tourists who know where to look. Boats arrive and dock where the stairs are cut away. Alongside the inhabitable frontage to the canal, there is space for sitting (fig. 8.27,8.28, 8.29).

152

fig. 8.27 South-East Elevation, + 20 years

+ 20 years

153

fig. 8.28 North-East Elevation, + 20 years

154

+ 20 years

fig. 8.29 Building section, + 20 years

155

+ 20 years

fig. 8.29 Building section, + 20 years

The tiny divisions of haphazard walls that first populate the palace, initially born out of an instinct for survival, give way to structures that seem deceptively lasting but are continuously in evolution. Small changes accrete, becoming larger ones (fig. 8.30). The freedom of manipulation, for better or worse, bypasses the political aloofness of Venice. The role of architecture does not control but assist. The hidden corners of Venice become a platform for publicness, in one generation, a place to start.

156

fig. 8.30 Building Transitions Over Time, Film Stills

157

158

+ 20 years

fig. 8.31 Front Porch, + 20 years

159

+ 20 years

Twenty years on, the water level at the palazzo has risen two centimeters. Environmental change is fast, yet cultural changes can occur in an instant.

Life moves on, and building with it. Marked by a pink column, the new normal of Venice is visible, change, architecture, and public life (fig. 8.30).

160

Meanwhile at the Doges palace, the lineup is very long. Tourists are waiting to hear stories of Venice as it was in the fourteenth century (fig. 8.32).

At twenty years past their incidental occupation, the first residents of the Palazzo Don are nearly Venetian enough to attend without paying. On their days off, however, they do not visit the palace to hear the stories of a past era, for they are busy helping build a new one (fig. 8.33).

161

fig. 8.32 Aerial Imagery of the Doges Palace, Venice, 2015

162

2015 2020

Doge's Palace

Palazzo Don Giovannelli

fig. 8.33 Facades Through time

163

2025 2035

164

Appendices

165

fig. 9.1 Detail of Hand Drawing, Front Faade Changes, 1847 - 2035

166

Presentation Boards

Venice PalazzoPalazzo is unboarded and lled with two hundred peopleSleeping spaces haphazardly dividedAreas with minor ooding used as bathrooms and showersWater is drawn from the well outside the courtyardMinor wall removals, leftover materials used to createcentral gathering space with replace

Cruise ship tourism increasesItalian government complies to EU demands by distributing groups of refugees across the countryPlacement of small refugee groups within VeniceLocals know what is occurring, are skeptically cautious

+ 6 months

Palace facade view from canal intersection.

Upper loggia behind front facade quatrefoils.

Palace facade view from tourist bridge.

Canal Level Plan.

Additions

1:200

ExistingSubtractions

AboveSite Boundary

Palazzo Don Giovannelli - Current ConditionGround Level Plan and Surroundings

1:500

+6 months

R I O D I N O A L E

c a m p i e l l o c h i e s a

ca

ll

e

fi

or

i

RI

O

DI

S

AN

TA

F

OS

CA

RI

O

TR

AP

OL

IN

CA

NA

L

G

RA

ND

E

st

ra

da

n

uo

va

ST

RA

DA

N

OV

A

Sleeping Area

Sleeping Area

Sleeping Area

Sleeping Area

Storage

Construction Areare pit

Damaged Area

Sleeping Area

Showers

w/c

Sleeping Area

Sleeping Area

Well

RIO DI NOALE

RIO

DI S

ANTA

FO

SCA

STRA

DA

NO

VA

CAMPIELLO CHIESA

FON

DAM

ENTA

VEN

DRA

MIN

south east elevation north east elevation

+ 5 YEARS

Venice PalazzoSome inhabitants return home or journey elsewhere, palazzo population reduced to fty people Living spaces moved to upper levels, ground oor is mostly emptyPalazzos inhabitants have some success repairing boats, creates a steady incomeFormer shower areas used as storage for boats in progressServices are formalized, run vertically to upper levelsPart of the back wal demolished, minor wall removals on interiorInformal workyard developed in gardenCentral courtyard used for cooking, food of the palace becomes known to locals

Cruise ship tourism increases, spoken language is broken EnglishLocals have become apathetic, some have grown to embrace the palazzos inhabitantsItalian government revokes visas of many former refugees

+ 5 years

Backyard garden view from caf.

Backyard garden view from small bridge.

Backyard garden view from small bridge.

Canal Level Plan.

Additions

1:200

ExistingSubtractions

AboveSite Boundary

Palazzo Don Giovannelli + 5 years

+ 5 years

BedroomsDamaged Area

Change room

Boat Storage

Boat Storage

Workyard

Well

Bedrooms

re place

RIO DI NOALE

RIO

DI S

ANTA

FO

SCA

STRA

DA

NO

VA

CAMPIELLO CHIESA

FON

DAM

ENTA

VEN

DRA

MIN

south east elevation north east elevation

fig. 9.2 Presentation Boards (1-2)

167

+ 10 YEARS

Venice Palazzoe palazzo is seen as a legitimate public placeInhabitants support touristic economyBusiness grows as the skills of the workers diversify, many become gondoliersMajor renovations begin to make the restaurant formalizedToo much of a loadbearing wa