Villa Zanetti
Villorba Treviso, Italy
Architectural redevelopment of the complex and park of Villa Zanetti
Scheda
2006-2008: Project
2008-2010: Construction
2008-2010: Construction
Assignment project and supervision of construction: IDxEA
Client: Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, Segafredo
Structural project: Ing. Andrea Rigato
Electrical system: Ing. Vincenzo Conte
Total above-ground development area: 1.745mq
Total underground development area: 1.045mq
Testo
When a businessman from Treviso, Massimo Zanetti, decided to breathe new life into his family’s historic villa in 2004, it was something of a tribute and a real homecoming. Memory and nature, in fact, are the common thread underlying a confident and contemporary design approach, aimed at a historically accurate restoration of the main body of the building, with more freedom in the design of the annexes.
Heeding the lesson of the great architect Carlo Scarpa, the firm introduced new architectural elements that would emphasize the quality of the pre-existing structure, in a discreet dialogue with the past.
The project is characterized by the use of bands of different widths whose composition is only apparently random. As far as the interior is concerned, the rigorously accurate restoration of the villa’s own stylistic and decorative elements is in striking contrast with the spatial simplification of the annexes, although this too is aimed at enhancing the villa’s superb original features. The ground floor of the building hosts an auditorium built under the ancient entrance gate for carriages; here the original visual interaction with the surrounding grounds is reinstated. The entire first floor of the former hayloft now houses the offices, and new wooden flooring has been lain. The main office space here extends to the terrace and incorporates it; the terrace itself covers the area containing the plumbing, heating and electrical systems. The spacious terrace at the western end of the first floor, on the other hand, becomes the natural extension of the new cafeteria, with its space for food and wine tastings also located on this floor of the complex.
The wooden shell encasing the auditorium looks like a large overturned leaf, a motif that is picked up in the awning that shades the bar on the terrace, and also in the roof over the gatekeeper’s lodge outside.
The cosy, family dimension of the Venetian ‘brolo’, or orchard, and the relaxing prospect of the long, tree-lined approach, of a type often found in the countryside of the Veneto, have been preserved and accentuated in the grounds of the villa.
Completing the restyling is a work by artist Arnaldo Pomodoro, his sculpture ‘Punto dello spazio’, has been placed near the 1930s fountain in front of the villa. Summoning up associations with the stars and the cosmos, the sculpture can be seen as the symbol of the contemporary rebirth of this unique site, which has now become a legacy for the whole community.
Heeding the lesson of the great architect Carlo Scarpa, the firm introduced new architectural elements that would emphasize the quality of the pre-existing structure, in a discreet dialogue with the past.
The project is characterized by the use of bands of different widths whose composition is only apparently random. As far as the interior is concerned, the rigorously accurate restoration of the villa’s own stylistic and decorative elements is in striking contrast with the spatial simplification of the annexes, although this too is aimed at enhancing the villa’s superb original features. The ground floor of the building hosts an auditorium built under the ancient entrance gate for carriages; here the original visual interaction with the surrounding grounds is reinstated. The entire first floor of the former hayloft now houses the offices, and new wooden flooring has been lain. The main office space here extends to the terrace and incorporates it; the terrace itself covers the area containing the plumbing, heating and electrical systems. The spacious terrace at the western end of the first floor, on the other hand, becomes the natural extension of the new cafeteria, with its space for food and wine tastings also located on this floor of the complex.
The wooden shell encasing the auditorium looks like a large overturned leaf, a motif that is picked up in the awning that shades the bar on the terrace, and also in the roof over the gatekeeper’s lodge outside.
The cosy, family dimension of the Venetian ‘brolo’, or orchard, and the relaxing prospect of the long, tree-lined approach, of a type often found in the countryside of the Veneto, have been preserved and accentuated in the grounds of the villa.
Completing the restyling is a work by artist Arnaldo Pomodoro, his sculpture ‘Punto dello spazio’, has been placed near the 1930s fountain in front of the villa. Summoning up associations with the stars and the cosmos, the sculpture can be seen as the symbol of the contemporary rebirth of this unique site, which has now become a legacy for the whole community.