| Presentation of La Fenice design exhibition
Roberto Cecchi
Head of Environmental and Architectural Service, Venice
The decision to hold an exhibition of designs for the new
La Fenice Theatre in the Salone del Piovengo in the Doge's Palace dates
was made at the beginning of May. Space in the Sala Signori della Notte
is restricted to just over 250 square metres - rather a small area considering
that there are six projects and thousands of drawings to go on show. But
perhaps this room is a better setting in that it is simpler and less likely
to lead to confusion and misinterpretations. It is thanks to the limited
space available, then, that the exhibition is fittingly concise.
Our main priority was to place documents on show, and to restrict exhibits
to those submitted for the competition. The exhibition therefore outlines
concrete designs for the theatre, not the adjustments which are often
carried out once the building is complete.
The exhibition revolves around Selva's model, a fitting symbol for the
call for tenders referred to in the catalogue as the General Report; it
gives an idea of what was meant by “as and where it stood”,
the slogan which was coined when the rebuilding project for La Fenice
was in its infancy.
Emphasis was placed on displaying project models for their immediacy and
immediate clarity for non-experts. Project designers were asked to choose
designs for the exhibition from among those they had produced for the
competition, with the emphasis once again on simplicity and immediacy.
It was also decided not to annotate the documents on show, enabling visitors
to form their own opinions of them in the knowledge that the material
on display contains all that is needed for comprehension and annotation.
All that remains at this point is to provide a summary of the conditions
underlying the rebuilding competition, and the problem which designers
were asked to solve.
When La Fenice burnt down on 29th January 1996, people immediately began
to debate what should be done. Having established that the theatre should
be rebuilt straight away, questions turned to whether or not it should
be rebuilt as it was, perhaps using designs from the archives, or rebuilt
from scratch using a design inspired by contemporary building standards.
As always happens in these cases, there was an overriding feeling that
the wound should be healed as soon as possible, and there was an emotional
need to recover what had been lost for good in the fire. It was decided
there and then to rebuild La Fenice “as and where it stood”.
The same occurred throughout Europe in the aftermath of the wars (in Coventry,
Dresden, Nuremberg and Verona). A symbol of the process is Warsaw, which
was completely rebuilt as it was before its destruction. After the second
World War, Florence's Santa Trinità Bridge was rebuilt thanks to
the historian Bernard Berenson who called for an exact copy. The famous
covered bridge in Pavia was also rebuilt at this time.
Meanwhile, work was underway in Milan to reconstruct La Scala Theatre
“as and where it stood”. More recently, the same occurred
in Venzone following the 1976 earthquake. An entire basilica was rebuilt
from the pile of rubble which remained after it had collapsed. Similar
plans were in the pipeline for Pavia's Civic Tower which collapsed suddenly
in 1989 and the cathedral of Noto which gave way in 1996.
In more recent times, the Church of San Giorgio in Velabro has risen from
the ashes in Rome; the Gergofili tower has been rebuilt in Florence, as
has the PAC in Milan. Similar efforts are being made to reconstruct the
Chapel of the Turin Shroud and Bari's Petruzzelli theatre.
Furthermore, there were ancient examples of this practice on hand in Venice.
The oldest dates all the way back to 1577 and the fire in the Doge's Palace;
it was decided to reconstruct the Palace and Palladio's new design was
rejected; the very room where the exhibition is taking place bears the
marks of the devastating fire as well as signs of the extensive repairs.
The second example is the bell tower of St. Mark's which collapsed in
1902 and was rebuilt to exactly the same design in 1912; on this occasion
the slogan “as and where it stood” was coined, despite the
fact that some were against it being reconstructed down to its last detail.
Ruskin was said to have asked for the rubble to be left in place so that
nature could run its course, a view of the world which owes much to a
painter of ruins.
Following the collapse of La Fenice, the slogan “as and where it
stood” has taken hold of people's imaginations. The worlds of culture,
business and politics are more or less unanimous in adopting this course
of action, one which seems to reflect a common feeling among the people
of Venice and mirrors the emotions of anyone who has experienced loss
on this scale.
Opposing voices have come principally from restoration experts who have
always looked at the problem in a different way. Since it is impossible
to bring back a lost building, experts tend to ask for a new design which
reflects current thinking.
However, standpoints are not as clearly defined as newspaper reports would
make out. Even the most wholehearted supporters of the new seem to have
taken account of Venice's unique environment. It is extremely difficult
to design something new in a place which has been in many ways impervious
to change for centuries. Venice stood defiant in the face of Renaissance
principles and, rightly or wrongly, refused to consider the modern.
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The projects submitted
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