Building in Venice. The characteristics of lagoon constructions

The presentation will illustrate some salient features of Venetian construction art: the materials, techniques, construction procedures, the devices and executive expedients applied by the workers in the erection of the lagoon structures will be related to the distributive and formal aspects of the buildings, highlighting the interdependent relationships between the construction data, functional organization, and the architecture language.

MARIO PIANA, graduated in 1974 from the University Institute of Architecture in Venice, worked as an architect at the Superintendency for the B.A.A. of Venice from 1979 to 1998, serving as Acting Superintendent in 1981-82.

As a UNESCO consultant in 1990 and 1994, he assisted local teams engaged in the restoration of several churches in Quito (Ecuador) damaged by an earthquake, and in 1996, he collaborated on the drafting of the structural consolidation project for the fortress of San Juan de Ulùa in Veracruz (Mexico).

A teacher of Architectural Restoration from 1998 to 2022 at the IUAV University of Venice, he was Director of the first three years of the specialization school in architectural and landscape heritage. Since 2010, he has been part of the faculty board of the PhD in architectural history.

Author of numerous publications dedicated to restoration themes and the history of lagoon construction techniques, he has been a member of the Scientific Council of CISA since 2004 and a member of the Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters, and Arts since 2018. He is currently the proto of St. Mark’s Basilica.

He has designed and directed numerous restoration projects; among them, the Grimani Palace at S. M. Formosa, the Contarini del Bovolo staircase, the castle of Rovigo, the Gaggiandre of the Arsenal, the Peristyle, the Tablino, and the Ovate Staircase of the Convent of Charity, the cathedral of Torcello, the basilicas of Frari and Salute, and the churches of S. Giorgio Maggiore and S. M. dei Miracoli.

He is the author of over a hundred publications dedicated to restoration themes and the history of construction techniques.

MELISSA CONN is the director of the Venice office of Save Venice and has been working for the organization since 1989. With 36 years of experience in Venetian art history and restoration, Melissa oversees all of the organization’s conservation projects in Venice and is responsible for Save Venice’s conservation pathway “Women Artists of Venice.”

Conn regularly gives lectures in Italy and the United States on Save Venice projects. A long-time resident of Venice, she was born and raised in Ohio and graduated in Art History from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Reservation is necessary – For information and bookings: visite@tizianovecellio.it

Mario Piana’s presentation, introduced by Melissa Conn of the Save Venice committee, will illustrate some distinctive features of Venetian construction art.