Accademia Carrara Extension

Francesco Venezia is one of Italy’s most sensitive architects, and also one of its most sensitive, perspicacious teachers. His courses – the equivalent of first-year design – tackled the question of how to enlarge iconic modern architecture: masterpieces by Le Corbusier, Mies, Aalto, Gardella, Rossi, or Siza. Venezia’s courses were truly instructive. I would even go so far as to say they were typical of Italian teaching, as form for Italians has always been something that must relate to a context, be this physical or historical. Indeed, the idea that Italians invent from scratch is not true. Italian architects are not very good at invention as it is construed today. For them, invention means re-elaboration, re-modeling, re-connecting. Which explains why they are so comfortable designing in old town centers or with historic buildings. The relevant Italian literature is considerable, and it is no coincidence that Cino Zucchi, one of today’s most talented Italian architects, when selected to curate the Italy Pavilion at the Venice Biennale ten years ago, chose the overall theme of “grafting”. Grafting a new building or a new section onto an existing one is a favorite theme of Italian architectural culture, as is juxtaposition: building alongside an existing construction. This country’s historic centers are themselves the result of grafting and juxtaposition, sometimes to the extent that the stratified layers hide the original footprint. However, grafted or juxtaposed constructions are not necessarily permanent. It may well happen – as was the case in the Renaissance – that the action even of a single individual sweeps away all traces of the past, replaced by a new rule, which, in its turn, will be altered by new grafting and new juxtapositions.

The above is pertinent if we are to appreciate Antonio Ravalli Architetti’s enlargement of Bergamo’s Accademia Carrara, home to one of the most...

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