Venice is built on unstable ground. Facades are distorted, floors uneven  and cracks are numerous. Casa a San Giobbe before restoration (photo Joaquim Moreno 1997) Precise surveying and monitoring enables the origins of this  deformations to be understood and indicates if facades where already built tilted inwards to avoid a more dangerous tilting [...]

Venetian residential constructions are particularly well suited to have a long life (and are therefore very “sustainable”), not only  because they were built with skill and good materials but also because they have very flexible layouts: to avoid load concentration on the unstable ground (see SINKING HOUSES), only a strict minimum of walls were built [...]

Borgoloco Pompeo Molmenti (photo veniceteam 2015)   Borgoloco (public courtyard) Pompeo Molmenti is flanked by a row of  nearly identical small buildings, built after 1500 and reusing older walls.  They have been through several transformations (in the 18th century two were joined by opening doors in the party wall and modifying the [...]

Palazzo Soranzo prior to renovation (veniceteam)   Again the second floor of this construction has undergone several transformations to accommodate numerous families for almost 6 centuries. Added in the mid-15th century (some previous roof beams are still incorporated into the masonry) and covered with a ceiling able to carry at least 1 [...]

Palazzo Donà della Madonata in 1900 (photo Naya) and prior to last renovation (photo veniceteam 2010)   How were medieval constructions “finished”? Palazzo Donà della Madoneta was last restored in the 1940s, when a 19th century plaster with fake marble decoration was removed from the façade on the Grand Canal to show [...]

Palazzo Donà della Madonata, façade at right angles to the Grand Canal prior to renovation (veniceteam 2011)   Historic buildings get transformed with every generation. It is challenging to attempt a mental reconstruction of the form buildings assumed at a precise moment in time or to understand the aesthetic intentions, the constructional [...]

The more information you collect from reading  a façade (see READING A FAÇADE ), the more difficult it is to make a choice when decisions about its renovation have to be taken. We know very little about the coating of the oldest parts (see IMITATING BRICKS ON BRICKS) and surviving fragments of later coatings can [...]

In 1940 ca. the 19th century staircase of palazzo Donà della Madoneta that occupied a former courtyard was partially demolished to serve only the second floor (piano nobile). To reach the third floor you had to cross the entire building to reach a service staircase at the back. This was possible since the second and [...]

Good architecture works for centuries. This apartment was created in the second half of the 18th century simply by adding a floor on top of the main façade of a 15th century palace (see BRINGING LIGHT INTO AN OLD PALACE: Palazzo Soranzo) Palazzo Soranzo, top floor (Verdiana Durand de la Penne 2007) The [...]

The book “Un restauro per Venezia” , co-edited with John Millerchip, illustrates the restoration of a city-owned  townhouse in Venice designated for social housing. The project was promoted by The Venice in Peril Fund, the British committee for the safeguarding of Venice, under the umbrella of UNESCO. The actual restoration work was financed by [...]