Zattere Co-op

Every new building in Venice always represents stylistic dilemmas. We still hope to design a modern structure that would be compatible with previous historical styles. Gardella's apartment building could be considered a new Gothic palace, a modern edifice adorned with clever Gothic details. The L-shaped footprint of the building stands directly on the waterfront opposite the island of Giudecca and extends along Calle dello Zucchero, enclosing a garden courtyard. The entrance, set into the house, is from a side alley that runs alongside the church of Spirito Santo. The entrance hallway leads to two separate stairwell blocks with elevators serving two groups of apartments. The first offers views of Giudecca, while the second opens into an inner garden. These two groups have balconies oriented towards the south and west. A separate three-story building, constructed later, occupies the northern end of the property along with the inner garden. Both buildings are built using traditional materials; the base and cladding are made of local travertine, and the walls are plastered. The stone foundation, window frames, sills, balustrades, chimneys, entrance, and corners reference the architecture of the 13th century in their details and concepts. The six-story façade along the Canale della Guidecca was designed to blend easily with the neighboring structures. The curved façade along the canal, a band of small windows in the base, simple repetition of windows, balconies protruding from the main façade on the upper three floors, an exaggerated cornice extending with a balcony, and heavy roof tiles all work to mitigate the impact of the new mass on its surroundings. Traditional architectural elements of palaces; the base, piano nobile, attic, and roof point to the connections of a typical medieval Venetian atrium house. Aside from the obvious metaphor of the palace, Ignazio Gardella was also sensitive to the tradition of multigenerational family homes "Venizia Minore". Palazzi minore were social housing, but these apartments with views across the canal to Giudecca are luxurious in the tradition of the palaces on the Grand Canal.
Gardella's work from the rationalist period of the 1930s, best evident in his competition projects, exhibitions, and "Milano Verde", dramatically changed after World War II, as he, like many other Milanese architects, adopted a more regional manner of building and revived traditional construction methods. He was one of the architects referenced by Reyner Banham in his article for Architectural Review in 1959, where he criticized the neoliberal style ("neo-liberty style") as a departure from the establishment of modern principles. The Zattere Co-op unequivocally belongs to this later period.