Student Workshop 1: Sustainable Reconstruction in Urban Areas

Vicenza

The City of Vicenza is an ancient city in the foothills of the Veneto Region.

Its geographical position in the alluvial corridor between the Berici and Lessinimountains and the plain is an important historical crossroads between Lombardy and eastern Veneto.

The first evidence of this urban centre goes back to the Roman castrum's foundation in the II century. B.C.

Romans organized the city centre on a quadrangular plan of 500 x 600 meters. Today we recognize the Decumano Maximus, now Corso Palladio, the Cardo Maximus, probably Corso Fogazzaro. The early medieval city has transformed the Roman geometries by redesigning the limit in less rigid forms, nearly as a circle, following the natural and geomorphological limits of the territory and partially leaning on the Bacchiglione river. The forma urbis included green areas close to the walls that penetrated towards the Ponte degli Angeli and the large fenced area of ​​Campo Marzo.

The urban asset of Vicenza Historical Centre is made up of a wide variety of urban elements and, since its origins, it has had a close relationship with the green system and the geomorphological system (such as the waterways and the surrounding hills).

Vicenza rose and prospered during the Venetian period from the beginning of the 15th century until the 18th century. During the 15th Century Andrea Palladio and his pupils, as Vincenzo Scamozzi, worked in the city and changed its appearance. The palazzi, or townhouses, were fitted into the urban asset of the medieval city, creating picturesque ensembles and continuous street facades in which the Veneto Gothic style combines with Palladio's articulated classicism.

The major urban transformations took place from the XIX century when road transport began. In this period, the railway and the areas of Campo Marzo and Parco Querini were built.

The bomb attacks of the Second World War (1943-45) hit the city hard, destroying numerous valuable and cultural buildings. After the war, starting from the 1950s, strong economic and industrial development made it one of the richest cities in Italy: many public buildings were rebuilt, a lot constructed ex-novo and the new residential neighbourhoods saturated the voids.

Urban transformations have brought a substantial change in the definition of green spaces, with the new buildings and the city expansion. In the historic city centre of Vicenza, only the sixteenth-century Valmarana-Salvi Gardensmaintained their identity unchanged. In 1946, the Trade Fair was inaugurated in the new pavilions of the Vicenza Fair in Valmarana-Salvi Gardens. In the 70s, the new West Industrial Zone began to take shape with the new headquarters of the Fair. Vicenza became the world capital for gold processing and the third Italian province for exports.

Unesco Serial Site

The city of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas in Veneto are part of a Unesco Serial Site that includes the city of Vicenza and twenty-four Palladian villas. Since 1994 the city of Vicenza, twenty-three buildings attributed to Palladio and three extra-moenia villas has been inscribed in the World Heritage List. From 1996 twenty-one villas located in different Veneto provinces have been registered to the same Unesco Serial Site.

Valmarana-Salvi Gardens

Valmarana-Salvi Gardens were opened to the public starting from 1592, and in 1645, Gianluigi Valmarana asked for a glorious entrance, no longer existing, in front of the previous Revese Bruti arch. This transformation connected the area to Campo Marzo and made this site part of an urban promenade that linked the city to the territory.

Valmarana-Salvi Gardens are the result of many transformations during the time. Modifications and the position next to the historical centre have always been considered a critical value of this site.

In 1897 the neighbouring wall was replaced by a wrought iron gate, visually connecting the garden with the outside and the nearby Campo Marzo.

The strategic location of Valmarana-Salvi Gardens, located near one of the oldest entrances in the city (Porta Castello) and directly accessible from the train station, favoured transformations during the 19th and 20th centuries. The gardens were the site of significant cultural events during this period. Among all, we can mention the Veneto Regional Exhibition of Decorative Art and the Trade Fair. Between the two loggias, it is possible to find two pavilions designed by Sergio Ortolani. From 1947, these buildings hosted the Trade Fair of Vicenza and have undergone many transformations that incorporated the ancient medieval walls into the modern buildings.

Due to the industrial and manufacturing development of the city and the territory over the years, Valmarana-Salvi Gardens spaces became inadequate. Between 1964 and 1971, instead of hosting the Trade Fair, the Garden pavilions started to host small temporary exhibitions. Later on, the pavilions were transformed until the mid-1980s into a Cinema, then the house of an athletics gym, and since 1994 of a dance society.

Between 2008 and 2011, part of the building was used by the Department of Business Administration of the University of Verona. The Giusti school was closed in 2010, and the Giardini Valmarana-Salvi Gardens pavilions are now used for social and cultural activities.

Currently, the garden spaces are open to the community, but the abandonment of the site and the conservation status of the buildings prevent fair usage.

*revised text from master’s degree research thesis: “Fiera della nostra storia. Restauro, valorizzazione, creatività. Un nuovo centro espositivo per l’ex Fiera Campionaria di Vicenza” 2016-2017 a.y. by Margherita Possamai, Sofia Zanotto. Relator: prof. Emanuela Sorbo