CA' FOSCARI SEDE STORICA
The restoration and adaptive re-use project involves the real estate development of the main building of Ca’ Foscari University. In view of the intrinsic variety of the buildings comprising the complex, and the Administration's multiple needs as regards the spaces - managerial, administrative, official, celebrative and receptive – the project was conceived in such as way as to endow coherence and homogeneity to both the functional layout and use of the actual rooms.
The architectural design requested a two-fold effort: the need to meet the Rector’s requirements and the desire to “clean” the building during restoration of the excrescences that had brutalized it and made it unrecognizable. We therefore recovered the 15th-century cells restoring the large volumes that the 20th-century works of the last 30 years had fragmented, so that the brightness and airiness of the building would be restored.
The development of such a detailed, progressive project philosophy resulted in the definition of highly comprehensive analysis and research methods, as well as general criteria and very specific intervention details.
Steel, glass and resin were the materials chosen for all the new elements: doors, skirting boards, floors, extension of existing stair systems, etc. These materials were chosen because they would highlight the original structures thanks to their visual neutrality, as well as leaving a visible sign of the new restoration. The work carried out on the materials of Ca’ Foscari respected conservative restoration guidelines. Internal and external stone elements, wooden ceilings, stuccos, and marmorini were cleaned, reinforced and protected using techniques that are suitable for each situation. The façades revealed coloured plastering decorated with geometric and figurative motifs.
