Palladio and Scarpa Tour

First, thanks for the questions and comments, they make it more interesting.

Yesterday, we took a studio field trip to two of the most important and beautiful pieces of architecture in the world. These two works are pieces that I marked out as an absolute MUST SEE, before flying here.

When I say a studio field trip, it means the 11 of us graduate architecture students and our professor, not the whole villa. Our professor planned the day and we didn’t have a break or a minute to spare all day. If we would have somehow screwed the timing up, it could have meant the loss of one of these sights. No eating on the bus, no bathroom breaks, eat and walk at the same time...

First, we visited Musee Canova by Scarpa. Second, we toured Villa Barbero by Palladio. Third, I personally had an enlightening experience with the Brion Cemetery by Scarpa. Fourth, we saw the Villa Rotonda by Palladio. Lastly, we toured a theatre and a few other works by Palladio in Vicenza, coined ‘the city of Palladio’.

All of these sites are spread out in the Veneto region of Italy, so we woke up at 5:30 and took a train north. Then we rented a bus driver that drove us around all day. The school pays for all of this through a fund they set up for us, the only thing I had to pay for was the 23 euro train ride back to the villa.

Scarpa’s work was unbelievable! Musee Canova was an addition he did to a sculpture museum. The detail, craft, light, and the way he forms interior spaces is all clear in his architecture. You just have to look and feel it. I could have stayed here all day, but we only had a half hour or so. Scarpa’s work is primarily all concrete; the forms he creates with concrete are breathtaking. The details in which he makes two materials meet is beautiful. No photos were allowed inside, but I have become pretty good at sneaking them in.

The next Scarpa piece we saw was the Brion-Vega Cemetery, in the middle of nowhere. This was truly, a pretty unbelievable experience. This is one of the works that I HAD to see while here. We have studied this in design classes numerous amounts of times. The reflection of the water is supposed to create a reflective moment on life. The materiality of the spaces was well crafted. Lily pads, concrete, water, grass, corn. The detail and craft in the concrete was unlike anything I have ever seen in any architectural design. The site is set in a corn field. The architecture then changes depending on seasons, whether or not the corn creates a void in space. So we were there at the perfect time of year, because the corn is tall and dead now. Dead correlating with the dead in the cemetery. Everything has a meaning. This experience has reconfirmed that he is top three on my favorite architect list.

Now on to Palladio, I know…this was the greatest day I could have asked for. Palladio was a stone mason in the 1500’s, then turned architect. Back then architects designed and built themselves. His work is world renowned and he may be the most famous architect world-wide; along with Brunelleschi, LeCorbusier and so on. He is about symmetry, and proportion of spaces. The proportion of spaces relates to the human body somehow.

The first work we saw of his was the Villa Barbero. This was essentially a farm house. We had to wear awkward foot socks so we wouldn’t dirty the floor. The neat thing about this villa is the painter that was commissioned and Palladio didn’t see eye to eye. So in many of the paintings and art work, the painter intentionally tried to make his work look bad, which in the end had the reverse effect and adds to the whole concept of the villa. If you look at the photo's I have posted you will notice an 'astronomical' clock on the front of the Villa Barbero. This is attributed to the painter.

The most important Palladian work is the Villa Rotonda, the second work I HAD to see. This is only open from 3 to 4 on Wednesday’s of each week. Our field trip was organized around this. We arrived at 3, thanks to Fabio, our bus driver. It was pretty amazing to see something I have read about so much.

Then we went to Vicenza, city of Palladio. We walked around for about an hour and tried to see as much as we could. It was interesting to see some of his other works that are not as world renowned as Villa Rotonda.

Then Fabio took us to the train station where we ate McDonalds and waited for the train to take us back to Florence. It was an exhausting day, but worth every second.