Catelvecchio: Preservation, Revelation, and Reinvention in Harmony Gogo Xiaoguo Zhu
`A noticeable architectural character in Europe, especially compared with the approaches in the U.S., is the attention to history and memory. Instead of an object, architecture is regarded more as an artifact, which represents its own evolution of identities throughout time. Architecture from the past usually bears traces of stratification, through which the story is revealed. The narrative shall continue as time goes on, when the old and the new form a congruous ensemble. The renovation work of Castelvecchio by Carlo Scarpa, in Verona, Italy, embodies the integration of preservation, revelation and reinvention that makes architecture timeless.
Stages of ownership of Castelvecchio.
Commune of Verona
Initially built for the Commune of Verona, Castelvecchio then gained its name and transformed into a military construction in the 14th century by the Scaligary Family. The castle imposed its power by a sense of rawness: bare decoration, compact size, vast towers, and primitive use of bricks. Later in history, Castelvecchio was intruded by the Napoleon troops and then, the Fascists. After World War II, the city no longer desired a fortification but a museum to hold historical artifacts from the region. Therefore, Castelvecchio altered its function due to programmatic needs. Until 1957, the year that Scarpa was commissioned to remodel Castlevecchio, the complex had gone through more than 700 years of adaptation in appearance, function, and relation to the city. The task was not simply to build, as most museum projects at that time demanded, but to orchestrate what to preserve, what to reveal, and what to reinvent to serve the future.
1. Preservation
Scaligary Family
Napoleon troops. 2
Before Scarpa, especially before Castelvecchio, working creatively within existing structures was not very common. In the first half of the 20th century, especially after World War II, mass new constructions were in great demand. Modern architects were encouraged to strive for the notion of newness: bold theories, new technologies, original forms and materials, etc. Nevertheless, Scarpa took another position and strove for another greatness by making renovation work as valid as new construction. Low-tech yet craft-intensive, the adaptation of Castelvecchio has been historically significant because of its care for pre-existing conditions. Preservation does not mean to keep everything intact, but to solve the tricky mathematics of what to add and what to take off to generate an authentic historic experience. Scarpa spent decades observing, drawing, layering, modeling; on multiple tracing papers, his drawings are a unity of past conditions and present thoughts. The decision was made to preserve almost all existing parts in the complex. Out of respect to the architecture’s long-established relationship with the city, the exterior is particularly well-kept. By preserving the integrity of the form, the renovation of Castelvecchio does not boast its novelty, but tells its history mildly via its own presence.