Renovation of Torre Porta Nuova Arsenale – Venice

Author: Francesco Magnani e Traudy Pelzel, Map Studio – Magnani Pelzel Architetti Associati
Reconstruction / Restoration (realized)
Renovation of Torre Porta Nuova Arsenale – Venice
Author: Francesco Magnani e Traudy Pelzel, Map Studio – Magnani Pelzel Architetti Associati

Location: Arsenale di Venezia, Italy

Porta Nuova Tower was designed in the beginning of the 1800s as crane tower to put the main mast on the ships at the Arsenale in Venice. In 2006 the Società Arsenale di Venezia S.p.A. announced a competition for the restoration of the Torre di Porta Nuova. The winner of the competition was the office run by Francesco Magnani e Traudy Pelzel (Map Studio). The project aims to ensure the preservation and enhancement of the historic Crane Tower, combining these requirements with the needs arising from its new functions as exhibition space and cultural centre. The ground floor of the ancient building is subdivided into three sections: a large central space flanked, on one side, by a long narrow rectangular space and, on the other, by a trapeze – shaped one. At the height of 8.57 mt (principal floor level) the three spaces merge into one by means of two large ogival arches. The impressive vertical volume that begins from this point is the key formal and structural feature that the restoration project seeks to foreground and develop, not least by means of the transformation of the system of vertical access with staircases, ramps and elevators. All the added new volumes and structures are made in Cor – ten steel to emphasize the masonry texture of the existing walls. It’s the strategy employed to keep clear the separation between the old “machine” and the new “facility” that leads to leave all the existing walls not treated, kept visible and simple repaired with reused bricks.

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