The Civic Hospital in Venice, built and unbuilt in time

The Civic Hospital develops along the Fondamente Nuove and occupies almost two-thirds of the insula of San Zanipolo. Like the Arsenale, it is one of the largest single-use urban areas in Venice. Given the specificity of the activities concentrated here, the Hospital has a profound impact on the circulation within the insula and, accessed at only a few strategic points, the complex can easily be considered a citadel, or a city within a city. From an architectural point of view, it suggests an incoherent ensemble of buildings, intentions, and styles. The complex is, in fact, the result of a long series of urban master plans and only partially-completed architectural projects, the origins and destinies of which are deeply interwoven with the social, economic, cultural, and political events that shaped the city as a whole.

Given the lengthy time span taken into consideration and for research purposes, the Hospital’s history was broken down into fragments and a set of specific historical questions identified for each fragment. From the initial phase in which—under the French rule—new healthcare needs were identified (1797–1807), a survey was conducted to identify the Hospital’s physical transformations (1807–1929). The origins and the debates of the projects prepared during what may be considered one of the most intense periods of Hospital’s history (1929–1957) were then retraced, and a reflection upon the meaning of the institution on both the urban (1957–1979) and the regional scale (1979–2012) begun. For each of these fragments, archival and bibliographical documentation was collected and analyzed. Using this material, new technologies were adopted to both interpret and visualize the transformation of the site over more than two centuries.

 

People

Gianmario Guidarelli

Ines Tolic

Isabella Friso

Andrea Giordano

Alessio Miatto