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Venecia che spera
(Andrea Appiani)
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1. The arrival of a traveler
in Venice is not the arrival of a Venetian in Venice, nor the arrival of a traveler anywhere else. The city of Venice, as no other, carries its aura of myth in its vary fabric; its presence is so pervasive that is difficult to determine where fact stops and fable begins.
Let us recall a magnificent exhibition held in the Correr Museum in 1984, entitled "Venezia nell'ottocento"(1). There were many representations of the city, from the more well-know works of Ruskin, Sargent, Caffi or Cardi to others, less well known. Looking through this catalogue again, in particular the essay "Venezia postuma", by Massimo Cacciari, you realize that there has existed, or may exist, a Venice of diversity beyond that described by Mann or Chateaubriand "bella donna che si spegne con la sera" –a city rejecting the decadent image of the gondola, like a bedroom at night, represented in Antonio Rotta's picture "La fidanzatta in gondola"; a city little given to sickly melancholy, to threadbare symbolism, to cheap history
(1) Venezia nell'Ottocento. Immagini e mito, catalogo della mostra, a cura di G. Pavanello e G. Romanelli ,Venezia 1983. Milano, Electa, 1983, n. 28
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But what is this other city? The city of another time, attributed to Nietzsche, where "the glory of dawn has yet to be seen" ? The anti-romantic city, seeking a measured, precise, wisdom, situated beyond time, as painted by Andrea Appiani in "Venezia che spera". Or, equally, the city that toys with the idea of the veil, of the surface concealing what lies behind, if indeed there is something behind; a Venice ambiguous and unattainable in its profundity. |
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2. We are drawn to the idea of speed and change wich is latent around the Piazzale Roma. Speed is a concept which pervades our era, and which considerably modifies the spatial codes of the city today.
We do not support, here, the naive speed of futurists and modern pioneers, the speed associated with progress. What interests us is the vacuum it leaves behind, the defeat of time by the moment.
Its aim is pure and crystalline, not deep.
It erases the footprints and crates a new space. Like in the desert.
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3. The mask, the desert, new-look apathy, the loss of centre and of absolutes, the resultant ambiguity and silence. Irony. Fin de siècle categories. But we should ask if survival is possible beyond these.
4. We propose that the historical façade of the Canal Grande should not be continued, and that the Piazzale Roma should be opened up, towards the city and towards the Giardino Papadopoli.
The bus-station is covered with a raised plaza, made of stone, semi-transparent.
Plaza-balcony, canopy, metallic continuum in the shade of the neighbourring trees, hypostyle veil, garage atrium, broken square,...
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| Project Info |
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Competition:
Ordenazione de la
"Piazzale Roma" di
Venezia
Project: 1991
Contributions:
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Piazzale Roma, Venezia
