Month: June 2019

The works of Andrea Palladio, the most influential architect ever, told by those who studies it today, lives it and preserves it for future generations. The journey of a cosmopolitan professor from Belgium to the United States to meet his mentors Kenneth Frampton and Peter Eisenman, the discoveries of three young restorers at Villa Saraceno in Veneto, the debate of tomorrow’s architects at the University of Yale. A choral and contemporary tale suspended between the Pantheon, Villa La Rotonda and the White House, between the Venetian countryside and the United States, where Palladio inspired the symbols of the nascent nation.

Sir Norman Foster visiting La Rotonda

When Sir Norman Foster, a British architect and designer, among the leading exponents of high tech architecture, came to visit la Rotonda in October a bridge was created, a deep and powerful connection between today’s and yesterday’s architecture.

A visit in the name of respect and silence inside the building that, though its structures and decorations, transmits continuous and intense vibrations. On the other hand, each arch, every structure or decoration tells the visitor something regarding the Rotonda’s story, from the 16th century with its construction.

Visiting Venice with his wife Elena Ochoa Foster and Francesco Bellavitis guest, sir Norman Foster, awarded Pritzker and nominated as a lord by the Queen of England in 1999 and author of masterpieces of contemporary architecture. Such as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, the City Hall, the Millennium Bridge in London and the Dome in Berlin’s Parliament, decided to enjoy the beauties of nearby Vicenza: starting from the palladian Basilica, a public building overlooking Piazza dei Signori, continuing with the Olympic Theatre, one of the wonders of the city, and concluding with La Rotonda.    

A magnificent visit, unexpected, which takes place at an unexpected time, when the person, the visitor and also an even number like Sir Norman Foster, who finds no common denominator with certain types of situations, manage to get into symbiosis with the place. 

After the visit, Nicolò Valmarana proposed to the British architect to “consider La Rotonda as his studio” in the hope that such an occasion could be repeated in the future .

The feeling is that from characters of this caliber you also learn from their silence, from the respect and smile of deep gratitude and condescension.