Apartment Building Borgo

Among Scarpa's most famous works are the adaptations of historic buildings, which he modified for contemporary needs with his unmistakable style. Most of Scarpa's creations consist of public buildings (museums, universities, banks) and only a few private projects (interior reconstructions and villas). Scarpa realized only one apartment building. It stands on the western outskirts of the historic center of Vicenza, which most visitors head to primarily for Palladio's legacy. Scarpa, who left the most realizations in his native Venice, spent his childhood in Vicenza, where he played in the arcades of Palazzo Chiericati and Basilica Palladiana, but he only had the opportunity to build in this city late in life, when he also moved his studio to the stables of Villa Valmarana located next to the famous Palladian villa La Rotonda.
The Borgo apartment building is indeed a new construction, yet it once again proves Scarpa's mastery in integrating new structures into historic surroundings. The apartment building adjoins block development on one side and opens onto a garden with mature trees on the other end. During the design phase, Scarpa encountered zoning regulations as well as the client's whims. In 1974, the investor invited Scarpa to collaborate with a local engineer whose project had already received building permits from the municipal authorities. Scarpa originally proposed a slender volume aligned with the street line, leaving the remaining part of the land for the garden. The municipal authorities approved the project on August 20, 1975, but Scarpa did not live to see the completion of his only apartment building.
Over time, the house underwent several changes. The four-story building was originally topped with a rooftop terrace accessible to all residents of the house, but later this space was enclosed (with a hipped roof) for additional apartments. Similarly, the façade had a pinkish "marmorino" color, but today it is painted white (the color has also been washed away by rain and has turned gray).
In the basement, accessible via a ramp on the western side of the house, there are not only parking spaces but also eight cellar compartments. The south-facing façade is slightly set back from the street line, creating a small garden that filters noise, and a concrete pergola also shades the ground floor. The main entrance to the building is recessed and leads visitors into a Japanese garden with a water feature, a sculptural canopy, and a brick pavement with concrete-filled cavities, creating a fine dotted decor. The red-painted steel heads of the columns and lintels have artistically crafted details. The staircase hall is located behind the entrance's semi-closed garden. The path leads diagonally to the center of the layout, from where two generously designed (up to seven-room) apartments can be accessed from the main landing on each floor. Asymmetrically positioned French windows are occasionally complemented by prefabricated reinforced concrete balconies featuring Scarpa's characteristic jagged decor at the drainage outlet points. The separation of the individual floors on the façade is achieved using continuous concrete bands at the level of the cornice.
Although the building was completed only after Scarpa's death, it is not his last realization, as a similarly unfinished building, the Palazzetto villa in Monselice, was completed by his son Tobia Scarpa almost four decades later in 2006.