Duomo di Siena-2012.07.30

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Duomo di Siena

Architect: Collective

Location: Siena, Italy.

Date: 1215-1263

Building Type: Piazza

Architecture Styles: Medieval, Baroque

Architectural Time Period: 700s-1300s

Construction Type: Bearing Masonry

Context: Urban

Introduction(Information mainly based on Internet and Readings):

Duomo di Siena, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church and now to Santa Maria Assunta (Most Holy Mary of Assumption), is a medieval church in Siena. The cathedral itself was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome and a bell tower. The dome rises from a hexagonal base with supporting columns. The lantern atop the dome was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The nave is separated from the two aisles by semicircular arches. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, with addition of red marble on the façade. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, etiologically linked to black and white horses of the legendary city’s founders, Senius and Aschius.

My own exploration:

Keywords: Plan & Entrance Study

 

Plan of the Campo with the entry studies. There are four entries, each one is illustrated with a perspective sketch to show the feeling and view when approving the space.

Piazza del Campo-2012.07.30

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Piazza del Campo

Architect: Collective

Location: Siena, Italy.

Date: 1280-1350

Building Type: Piazza

Architecture Styles: Medieval

Architectural Time Period: 700s-1300s

Construction Type: Bearing Masonry

Context: Urban

Introduction(Information mainly based on Internet and Readings):

Piazza del Campo is the principal public space of the historic center of Siena, Tuscany, Italy and is regarded as one of Europe’s greatest medieval squares. It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and architectural integrity. The Palazzo Pubblico and its Torre del Mangia, as well as various palazzi signorili surround the shell-shaped piazza. At the northwest edge is the Fonte Gaia. The twice-a-year horse-race, Palio di Siena, is held around the edges of the piazza.

My own exploration:

Keywords: Plan&Section, Pavement

Plan&Section

Plan of the Campo, with the entry studies

Sections of Campo

Pavement

Pavement of the Campo, in a word, different zones have different pavement patterns

Ca’ Rezzonica-2012.07.15

Ca’ Rezzonico is a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice. Today it is a public museum dedicated to 18th century Venice and one of the 11 venues managed by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

Ca’ Rezzonico stands on the right bank of the canal, at the point where it is joined by the Rio di San Barnaba. The site was previously occupied by two houses belonging to the Bon family, one of Venice’s patrician families. In 1649 the head of the family, Filippo Bon decided to build a large palazzo on the site. For this purpose he employed Baldassarre Longhena, the greatest proponent of Venetian Baroque, a style slowly replacing the Renaissance and Palladian architectural style of such palazzi as (its near neighbour) Palazzo Balbi and Palazzo Grimani built over 100 years previously. However, neither architect nor client was to see the completion of the Palazzo Bon: Longhena died in 1682, and Filippo Bon suffered a financial collapse.

The design was for a three story marble façade facing the canal. The ground floor rusticated, containing a central recessed portico of three bays without a pediment, symmetrically flanked by windows in two bays. Above this the piano nobile of seven bays of arched windows, separated by pilasters, above this the “second piano nobile” was near identical, and above this a mezzanine floor of low oval windows. The slight projection of the two tiers of balconies to the piano nobili accentuate the baroque decoration and design of the building. The palazzo today follows this form, although it was not finished until 1756 by the architect Giorgio Massari, who had been brought in to oversee the completion of the project by the new owners – the Rezzonico Family. Massari however, seems to have adhered to the original plans of Longhena, with the addition of some concepts of his own which reflected the change in architecture between the palazzo’s conception and its completion 100 years later.

The courtyard

Above are some interior images of this museum

Palazzo della Ragione-2012.07.13

The Palazzo della Ragione is a Medieval town hall building in Padua, in the Veneto region of Italy. Located just south of the historic Caffè Pedrocchi, and a necessary destination for those meandering about the historic center of town, the picturesque open-air markets of Piazza delle Erbe (Square of the Herbs) and Piazza della Frutta (Square of Fruit) frame this massive 13th-century palazzo and have stood as the town’s political and commercial nucleus for centuries.

The building, with its great hall on the upper floor, is reputed to have the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe; the hall is nearly rectangular, its length 81.5m, its breadth 27m, and its height 24 m; the walls are covered with allegorical frescoes; the building stands upon arches, and the upper storey is surrounded by an open loggia.

The Palazzo was begun in 1172 and finished in 1219. In 1306, Fra Giovanni, an Augustinian friar, covered the whole with one roof; originally there were three roofs, spanning the three chambers into which the hall was at first divided; the internal partition walls remained till the fire of 1420, when the Venetian architects who undertook the restoration removed them, throwing all three spaces into one and forming the present great hall, the Salone. The new space was refrescoed by Nicolò Miretto and Stefano da Ferrara, working from 1425 to 1440.

The interior is as impressive as its exterior. The two-story loggia-lined “Palace of Reason” is topped with a distinctive sloped roof that resembles the inverted hull of a ship, the largest of its kind in the world. Inside the building, a large wooden sculpture of a horse attributed to Donatello. The 15th-century frescoes are similar in style and astrological theme to those that had been painted by Giotto, and comprise one of the very few complete zodiac cycles to survive until modern times.

Castelvecchio Museum-2012.07.12

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Castelvecchio Museum (Italian: Museo Civico di Castelvecchio) is a museum in Verona, northern Italy, located in the eponymous medieval castle. Restoration by the architect Carlo Scarpa, between 1959 and 1973, has enhanced the appearance of the building and exhibits. Scarpa’s unique architectural style is visible in the details for doorways, staircases, furnishings, and even fixtures designed to hold a specific piece of artwork.

Above are some photos of Carlo Scarpa’s garden:

Between 1958 and 1974, Castelvecchio, underwent an important and reinstallation of the museum spaces， designed and supercised for the city of Verona by the architect Carlo Scarpa during the directorship of the art historian Licisco Magagnato. The antique arms count, reduced at the beginning of the 20^th century to an Italianate garden, was transformed by Scarpa into an extraordinary morden courtyard that complements the architecture with geometrical logic and the use of both traditional Veronese materials, such as Prun stone, and concrete.

This space is both the prologue to the museum visit and a resting slong the route. Several important works in stone are also sited within the garden: two 19^th century fountains, an early 13^th century sarcophagus, the central rose from the medieval floor of the church of Sant’Anastasia, installed here like an emblem next to the entrance. In addition, the site contains a medieval sundial and the celebrated equestrian statue of Cangrande I della Scala.

Castelvecchio was a castle in ruins before Scarpa was commissioned to restore it as a museum.

Scarpa then used modern materials to renovate Castelvecchio, the result is a surprisingly harmonical composition between old and new.

Scarpa’s attention to details is wonderful. Here’s how he designed his own railings.

He build the stairs accommodated to left and right steps that lead towards the old Castelvecchio.

Ornate metal lattice door designed by Carlo Scarpa.