Enjoy Venice in every sense
Venice is a little, unique, jewel city that was built on a series of islands connected by canals and bridges. Venice has long been known for its picturesque beauty, stunning architecture, and rich cultural heritage. However, in recent years, Venice has faced a growing threat: the sinking of its foundations.
Continue reading “IS VENICE SINKING?”The Venice Carnival is an internationally renowned event that takes place annually in the beautiful city of Venice, Italy. Known for its elaborate costumes, masks, and parties, the carnival draws visitors from all over the world to experience the unique and ancient tradition. But have you ever wondered about the history and origins of this spectacular event and the iconic masks that have become synonymous with it?
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.
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Personality: Cino Zucchi.
Place: Area Ex Junghans.
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Area Ex Junghans
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
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.
This month we will talk about the iconic symbol of Giudecca Island: Molino Stucky and its owner Giovanni Stucky.
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Personality: Giovanni Stucky.
Place: Molino Stucky.
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Continue reading “MOLINO STUCKY: THE MARK OF GIUDECCA ISLAND”
This month we will talk about a rather famous monument of Venice: the arsenal (Arsenale) and the first Chinese art gallery owner hosting her exhibition there during Biennale.
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Continue reading “THE INDUSTRIAL HEART OF VENICE: ARSENALE”
Italy is gradually starting to wake up from the long semi-lockdown which has paralyzed the country for the past months. However, things are slowly changing; more and more people are getting vaccinated and the virus, even if it is still around, seems to have weaken a bit. So, why don’t take advantage of the good weather and go to Venice? Today we are going to take a long relaxing walk, giving a look around and visiting places which are always so nice to see!
Continue reading “WALKING AROUND VENICE!”INDUSTRIAL ART IN VENICE: MAGAZZINI DEL SALE
This month we host another post of our joyful collaboration with Venice in Pattern.
As usual, we will try to link a special person to a place, telling a story of emotions.
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Personality: Roy Lichtenstein.
Place: Magazzini del Sale.
Continue reading “INDUSTRIAL ART IN VENICE: MAGAZZINI DEL SALE”
Last month we decided to re-start our joyful collaboration with Venice in Pattern writing about the wonderful Cotonificio Olcese, here the link.
This month we will stay nearby with another incredible tale about some special people and a crazy place, telling a story of emotions.
Continue reading “INDUSTRIAL ART IN VENICE: MANIFATTURA TABACCHI”I met Laure many years ago, during the Carnival in the famous parade of Festa delle Marie. I have always been very curious about her experience and that’s because we interviewed her last week, in order to discover what took her from Brussels to Venice!
So…who is Laure Jacquemin and what has taken her to move from Brussels to Venice?
Laure is a Belgian girl that has lived in Venice for 10 years and as happened many times, she moved in Italy for love..not for the love of Venice, but for the love of her Italian husband.
If you see her Instagram profile you can see that Laure is an amazing photographer, but surprisingly I discovered that she started her path as photographer here in Venice…ten years ago!
The Jewish Ghetto in Venice is a very particular area where I often go …it is near Santa Lucia, immediately after Ponte delle Guglie.
Did you know that the word ‘ghetto’ derives from the Venetian word ‘geto’?
In the early Middle Ages, in this part of the city there was an ancient foundry (a “geto” in Venetian) which was used to forge the bombarde, the small cannons of Venetian ships. When, for political reasons, in 1516 the Republic of the Serenissima established by law that all Jews should live and reside here, the population came mostly from Central Eastern Europe and it was precisely because of their pronunciation that the Venetian term “geto” , was crippled into “ghetto” (German read), originating the term we use today all over the world.
