Bones of Venice
Architecture: MArch
Carsten
Year 02
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Project
Rising from the canal before the Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore, the museum stands above the venetian skyline as a reliquary for two delicate artifacts brought up from the lagoon. The two thirteenth century ships found at the site of the sunken island of San Marco in Boccalama are safely seconded within the great bastion. Here, temperature, humidity and sunlight are tightly controlled so as to keep the artifacts in a state of stasis. Even accessibility is easily controlled as the building is only accessible by boat.
The building consists of a poche wall which surrounds a courtyard in the style of a venetian palazzo. The vaulted internal spaces and slit windows invoke the byzantine architecture which influenced much of Venice’s early building practices. The courtyard is covered by a ceiling constructed from glulam and metal sheets which can move to fill the cavernous space with dappled light. Around the brick poche wall, a façade made from layered and oxidised copper and steel sheets wraps the building. This façade is perforated with kaleidoscopic quatrefoil patterns which echo both the architecture of the Doge’s Palace, and the Andalusian inspiration thereof. On the interior, perforated copper is also used in areas, clutching to the solid brick in a way that echoes the surrounding city.
