Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Contemporary Venice: Works in Progress
Modernism was not without its critics, especially among Venice's preservationists. But
when a disastrous flood hit Venice in 1966, architecture aficionados around the globe put
aside their differences, and aided Venetians in bailing out
palazzi
and reinforcing founda-
tions across the city. With the support of Unesco and funding from 24 affiliated organisa-
tions worldwide, Venice has completed 1500 restoration projects in 40 years.
Today the city is open to a broader range of styles, though some controversies remain.
Among the projects that never left the drawing board are a 1953 design for student housing
on the Grand Canal by Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier's 1964 plans for a hospital in
Cannaregio, and Luis Kahn's 1968 Palazzo dei Congressi project for the Giardini Pubblici.
Plans to transform Venice's rather drab Marco Polo Airport with Frank Gehry's €80-million
Venice Gateway complex remain stalled, and the Italian Culture Ministry requires revisions
to Rem Koolhaas' 2012 designs transforming Fontego dei Tedeschi into a Benetton
megastore on the Grand Canal. Controversy continues to rage over the costly 2010 Ponte di
Calatrava and 2003 reconstruction of Teatro La Fenice, which is a €90-million replica of
the 19th-century opera house, instead of the modernised version proposed by Gae Aulenti.
Yet there's more modern architecture here than you might think: one-third of all buildings
in Venice have been raised since 1919.
Next to bridges, Venice's most common architectural features are its
poggi
(well-heads). Before Venice's
aqueduct was constructed, more than 6000 wells collected and iltered rainwater for public use. Even
today, overlow happy-hour crowds at neighbourhood
bacari
(bars) gossip around 600 ancient watering holes
that still remain.
The Ando Effect
A surprising number of avant-garde projects have been recently realised in Venice, despite
strict building codes and the challenges of construction with materials transported by boat,
lifted by crane and hauled by handcart. With support from the city and financing from his
own deep pockets, French billionaire art collector François Pinault hired Japanese minimal-
ist architect Tadao Ando to repurpose two historic buildings into showcases for his
contemporary-art collection. Instead of undermining their originality, Ando's careful repur-
posing revealed the muscular strength of Giorgio Masari's 1749 neoclassical Palazzo
Grassi and Venice's abandoned c 1675 Punta della Dogana customs houses, relaunched as
an art museum in 2009. Around the corner from Punta della Dogana, Pritzker Pr-
