Wednesday in Padua

This past Wednesday, we went to Padua with UF. This city was very different from the previous cities we have visited because everything is much newer. Most of the buildings were built after WWII because the city was bombed. The time that we were in the city was quite uncomfortable because it was a little chilly outside and it was pouring down rain. Our professor was somewhat annoyed with us I believe because everyone was complaining and slowing him down. So, instead of staying in Padua for the entire day and going to our 3:00 tour, he let us leave around noon.
The first image below is a memorial to the events of September 11, 2001. It was designed by Daniel Libeskind. The structure contains a piece of steel from the Twin Towers.

The image above is a part of the university in Padua.

This is the Palazzo della Ragione, it is very similar to the Basilica here in Vicenza. Similar to the Banca Populare di Verona, TJ and I researched this building, so we had to tell the class about it.

This shows most of the students at V.I.A. and how we looked the entire day :(.

Another trip to Venice

Friday, September 11, TJ and I went back to Venice to see a building that we didn't see when we went with our class, and to go to some of the little shops. We brought a map that our professor had given us that showed significant buildings that he would show us as we walked through the city, so the map was really small and not very good quality. TJ and I knew where the building was that we wanted to see, but how to get there was a different story. The city is built around canals, so there isn't a city gris that is easy to navigate. So it took probobly about 2 hours for us to finally get to the Punta Della Dogana Museum designed by Tadao Ando. We bought tickets and walked around the muesem which houses modern art collections. The art was weird and interesting, I guess. But, it was neat to see the building because it only opened a few months ago, and Tadao Ando is another arcthitect that we have heard about and we know his work.

This is the museum from the other side of the canal.

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum, but I managed to pop my camera out of the top of my purse, and this is what I got.

Carlo Scarpa in Verona

We went to Verona for our class trip on Wed. September 9. We toured the Banca Populare di Verona designed by Carlo Scarpa. Also, each week, the 14 students that are in the V.I.A. program separate into pairs, and we are required to pick a building in the city we will be visting that week, and write a page about it. For Verona, TJ and I actually chose this building the Banca Populare di Verona. So we already knew a little bit about this building. Also, if you chose a building that we will see during the walk through the city, you have to tell the class about the building as we stop in front of it, so for this one, TJ told everyone what we had learned about the bank.

Earlier in the day, before we visited the bank, we visited the Castelvecchio museum, also designed by Carlo Scarpa. This is a building that we have all seen and learned about since we started in architecture. The building is actually an old castle that was then bombed during WWII, so then Scarpa used what remained, and also added some new parts to the building. It is a museum that contains medieval period art, but a sad, but true fact is that, we all walked through it only looking at and taking pictures of the architecture. It is a very nice building.

An interesting aspect of the design, it the man on the horse statue shown in the picture below. The statue shows a man riding a horse who was part of a rich family from Verona. The statue was originally placed where he was buried, but now the statue is one of the main focal points within the museum. ( A replica is now at his burial site, we walked by it.) So, Scarpa designed the placement of the horse so that it could be seen from many different places, and it would seem that you would continue to get closer to it but you would never reach it.

Verona

This Wednesday we all went to Verona. So far, the tour of Verona was my favorite city tour. We started the tour with a walk through the city gate, which I believe is from the medieval era. We were also able to go beneath the entrance, through some tunnels that were used to protect the city beneath the city wall. We then went to the Basilica of San Zeno, which is a large cathedral. It is my favorite cathedral that I have seen up to this point. From the main entry, you can see down to the crypt as well as up to the main alter (chapel). It is beautiful. (Side note: the crypt in this church was the one in which Romeo and Juliet died.) During our break for lunch, a couple of us walked by Juliet's balcony. I did not include any photos here, but we visited the Castelvecchio and the Banca Popolare di Verona both designed by Carlo Scarpa (I will have to do a separate blog for those.) The last image shows the Giardino Giusti Verona. It is a formal garden behind a palace. It was very pretty and green. It is on a hill, so toward the back of a garden, you actually climb stairs in a tower and arrive at the top of the hill and are able to look down on the entire garden as well as see a nice view of the city of Verona.

Carlo Scarpa in Venice

While in Venice this past Wednesday, we visted several churches and a couple of Carlo Scarpa's designs. The fist image shows the entrance to the IUAV (University of Venice). The folowwing images are of the Querini Stampalia Museum. The building was previously existing and Scarpa redesigned the interior. It is very interesting. Venice is prone to flooding, and the water level changes during certain times of the year. So, Scarpa created the design for this museum with the knowledge of this flooding. The interior has raised walking corridors, that leaves a lower channel to the side. During the times of the year that the water level is high, these lower areas lining the walking corriders fill with water. Unfortunately, while I was there, the water level was low, so there isn't any water in the interior. Also, the building is a museum with some art, but I think most people vist it entirely for the architecture. Behind the building, there is a private garden/ courtyard area, also design by Scarp with 2 small water features. Anyway, vistiting this building was most definitely the most interesting part of my visit to Venice. Oh, also the image of the bridge leading to the Querini Stampalia was also designed by Scarpa and there is an image of a detail of the handrail below.

Venice, the Sinking City

We visited Venice on Wednesday, September 2nd. It is a very unique city. Obviously, everyone recognizes that it has many canals, but there are some side effects for having so many canals. First, there are a ton of bridges; most of them have stairs, which makes it very difficult for people who are disabled. Also, no cars or automobiles of any kind are allowed in the city, therefore the streets are purely for pedestrians. Another strange fact is that there aren't any bicycles either, so the only mode of transportation is walking (or boat). It was very interesting to see the city, although it is very touristy. There are so many street vendors who set up stands that sell cheap little souvenirs.
We walked through the city on a tour led by one of our professors. He is acutually Italian, and he started the University of Florida Vicenza Architecture program about 20 years ago. So he knows the cities of Italy very well. The very first thing our professor showed us was a low-income housing area (I don't remember who designed it), but it definitely does not look anything like the low-income housing in the States (it looks much better!). After we saw the housing we saw a bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2008. We then continued our tour through the city, one of the images below shows the Doge's Palace, followed by a gondoleer in front of Querini Stampalia (designed by Carlo Scarpa), followed by an image of the Rialto Bridge, and lastly, an image that is typical of Venice.