Procuratie Vecchie Venice

David Chipperfield Architects

Products

34 1004
Window handle

FSB 1004 by David Chip­per­field bears the hall­mark of the Mod­ernist pi­o­neers. It is un­der­pinned by a clean-lined formal concept that meets all func­tional re­quire­ments giving ex­pres­sion to his formal idea in both public and private spheres.

34 1004
Window handle
1004
Door handle fitting

Procurators’ Offices open to public

Famed the world over for its mag­nif­i­cent façade over­look­ing Venice’s piazza San Marco, the Procu­ratie Vecchie build­ing has now been re­fur­bished root-and-branch by David Chip­per­field. Parts of these Procu­ra­tors’ Offices, which were built some 500 years ago, is now ac­ces­si­ble to the general public for the first time in their long history. The build­ing is just under 500 feet long and orig­i­nally con­tained the procu­ra­tors’ ad­min­is­tra­tive and life­long res­i­den­tial premises.

The north­ern wing was the first part of the en­sem­ble to be built and is con­sid­ered one of Venice’s finest ex­am­ples of Re­nais­sance ar­chi­tec­ture. Several ar­chi­tects helped lend shape to the build­ing, fore­most amongst them the Flo­ren­tine Jacopo Sanso­vino. The links between the his­toric struc­ture and in­sur­ers Gen­er­ali, the com­mis­sioner, go back a long way.

The company rented offices in the build­ing from the very moment of its being set up in 1831 and now owns most of the entire north­ern wing. A key element of Chip­per­field’s brief in­volved cre­at­ing spaces for a foun­da­tion es­tab­lished by Gen­er­ali en­ti­tled “The Human Safety Net”. Thus, while the insurer’s offices occupy the first and second floors, the attic is home to ex­hi­bi­tion spaces for the foun­da­tion as well as ac­com­mo­dat­ing an au­di­to­rium, a café, a library, con­gre­ga­tional areas and open work­spaces.

Architecture and Object

David Chip­per­field
Photo: © David Chip­per­field Ar­chi­tects

“Re­pair­ing, re­unit­ing and adapt­ing the many layers of this his­toric struc­ture,” as the ar­chi­tect David Chip­per­field himself says of the project, “was a highly complex yet re­ward­ing chal­lenge that demon­strated to us once again just how pow­er­ful ar­chi­tec­ture is both as phys­i­cal sub­stance and as a process of co­op­er­a­tive en­deav­our.”

Repaired, united, adapted

One major change made under the gen­er­ally very cau­tious ap­proach adopted is the ad­di­tion of a new stair­well to serve the re­vamped attic storey. The stairs are located cen­trally between the build­ing’s court­yards and cul­mi­nate in a new “central pavil­ion” that admits light to the stair­well and affords access to the two ad­join­ing roof ter­races. The en­filade-style arrange­ment of spaces on the attic floor gives a sense for the first time of just how long this, a build­ing pri­mar­ily con­fig­ured along the ver­ti­cal axis, ac­tu­ally is.

The brick­work in walls orig­i­nally serving a purely struc­tural purpose has been exposed. The tall, cir­cu­lar-topped, cast-stone portals in­serted repli­cate the arches in the outer façade whilst also un­der­scor­ing the space’s length. The con­scious use made of tra­di­tional ma­te­ri­als and tech­niques for the re­fur­bish­ment is plain to see. The angular stair­way, for example, is made up of ter­razzo steps and sec­tions painstak­ingly lime-grouted. Ancient tech­niques such as coc­ciopesto or pastel­lone were adopted for the floor­ing, fur­ther­more.

David Chip­per­field was, of course, able to resort to one of his own handle designs for this project. Its styl­is­tic in­debt­ed­ness to the pi­o­neers of Mod­ernism notwith­stand­ing, his FSB 1004 model is ideally suited to the his­tor­i­cal setting of the Procu­ratie Vecchie. Handles in Dark Pati­nated Waxed Bronze have been fitted. The foun­da­tion’s premises in the build­ing’s attic have been open to the public since April 2022. Amongst the items on offer is a per­ma­nent ex­hi­bi­tion en­ti­tled “The World of Po­ten­tial” that ex­plores the role tech­nol­ogy can play in ac­quir­ing social skills.

Object Details

Photos: Alberto Parise

Location

Procuratie Vecchie Venedig

P.​za San Marco, 105,
30124 Venezia VE,
Italien

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