VENETIANS REVIVALS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: EXAMPLES OF NEO-MEDIEVALIST ARCHITECTURE IN THE RIO DEL GAFFARO AREA

Abstract

This paper presents some examples of architectural revivals created by a promising Venetian architect at the beginning of the twentieth century, in a marginal area of the city of Venice known as Rio del Gaffaro that was subjected to an intense phenomenon of redevelopment and urban development, following the construction of new road and rail links to the mainland. The original hypotheses for the evolution of the lagunar city, proposed by their author, use an innovative compositional syntax that becomes the thin line of division between traditionally antagonistic references such as classicism and modernism, or orientalism and localism, in some of the best examples of neo-medievalist revival in early 20th century Venice. In particular, the use of historical reference in the composition of the new architectural forms establishes an intense, but quiet and pacific dialogue between the ancient and the modern. In this comparison, all interruptions between past and present are removed, not only in the composition of the residential architectural cell but also in the formation of the new urban fabric into which it is inserted. This way of reinventing history was to open the way for many subsequent readings and interpretations by other Venetian architects.