AREA EX JUNGHANS – GIUDECCA ISLAND

This month we will sadly end this wonderful collection of posts about the industrial side of Venice by talking about Ex Junghans Area, placed in Giudecca Island.

venice architecture

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Personality: Cino Zucchi.

Place: Area Ex Junghans.

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Area Ex Junghans

venice giudecca

As we have explained here, Giudecca was the industrial heart of Venice. Here, for instance, was placed Molino Stucky factory and also the Junghans factory.

As some of you may know, Junghans is a worldwide famous watch and clock manufacturer. Founded in Germany on 15 April 1861, at the beginning of XX century it owned the largest clock factory in the world.

Besides that, Junghans decided to build a clock factory in Giudecca Island which was later converted in a war factory during World War II. Here, the war production continued after the end of the war.

Only at the beginning of the 1990s the Municipality of Venice launched a call for projects with the aim to change the industrial area in a modern residential neighbourhood.

In 1995 Cino Zucchi, an Italian architect, won the call and so the renovation of the Junghans area could begin.

Cino Zucchi

venice architecture

Cinzo Zucchi was born in Milano in 1955 and graduated in Architettura at the Politecnico di Milano in 1979. Nowadays, he has become a worldwide famous architect.

According to Zucchi Venice “necessita di tecniche progettuali articolate, che sappiano stabilire chiari obiettivi generali e al contempo attivare comportamenti pragmatici, flessibili, circostanziati”.

Freely translated “Venice requires articulated design techniques, which are able to establish clear general objectives and at the same time trigger pragmatic, flexible, detailed behaviours”.

In accordance with this statement, the renovation of Junghans Area was described as a “microsurgery”, meaning some places were radically renovated while others were only partially modified.

Zucchi designed 5 different residential buildings to explore the theme of living (one is presented in the trittico). The intervention involved the construction of a new canal and a new dock, preserving the pattern that characterized the Venetian spatial sequences: calli, campi, canals, public and private gardens. Thus, the contemporary architectures perfectly cohabit with the ancient parts of the island.

Without doubts, the projected renovation proved to be a good plan for Venice. Nowadays Junghans Area is a pleasant neighbourhood hosting, among others, a Theatre, shops and housing.

YONA FRIEDMAN – LA MONTAGNE DE VENISE

yona friedman

“Utopies réalisables”. That’s the title of the famous book published by Yona Friedman, renowned international architect and one of the most important figures in the field of design. An utopia is something imaginative, and basically not likely to be realised. But Yona Friedman did it. And not in any random places. We, Venice by Venetians and Venice in Pattern, are going to tell you everything about this interesting figure and his great contribution to Venice, in particular in the Arsenal.

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UNREALIZED VENICE: MASIERI MEMORIAL BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

As announced here, from this April we are starting a new project in collaboration with Venice in Pattern: a person, a place, one story, many emotions.

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venice

Personality: Frank Lloyd Wright.

Place: Masieri Memorial on the Grand Canal, unrealized project.

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April is a promise that May is bound to keep” once said Hal Borland. It is quite true. April is not winter and it is not summer, just spring, an unrealized time of change. Continue reading “UNREALIZED VENICE: MASIERI MEMORIAL BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT”

SAINT MARK’S BASILICA

Where: San Marco Square

  • From Piazzale Roma:

By water-bus lines :

1 ( about 40 minutes)

51 direct (about 20 minutes)

2 direct ( about 30 minutes)

 

  • From the Train Station (Santa Lucia):

By water-bus lines :

1 ( about 35minutes)

51 direct ( about 25 minutes)

2 direct ( about 25 minutes)

On foot it takes about 30-45 minutes to reach it from either locations.

Continue reading “SAINT MARK’S BASILICA”