VIA STUDIO Spring 2014: Exploring the city of walls
The concept of "wall" is a powerful element in the urban fabric of Vicenza. The building technology of place celebrates the load-bearing wall as the primary constructional strategy employed here for 2,000 years. Unlike American "cities of objects", Vicenza is a city of street and piazza walls where buildings collectively define urban space with great spatial precision. Vicenza was repeatedly sacked by the barbarian hoards that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, culminating with the destruction of the city in 899 by the Hungarians which led to the construction of defensive walls around the city. These walls were greatly expanded during the medieval period to encompass adjacent developments resulting in layers of interconnected walls. Intense development within the safety of the perimeter walls led to a very compact urban fabric which still characterizes Vicenza's historic city center. As defensive walls over time became less useful due to artillery and military tactics, growing space demands within the confined walled city led to the modification or removal of some walls and the reuse of wall materials in new construction. However, fragments of the walls remain in many forms along with memory imbedded in street and place names on maps and in remnants of moats.
On Thursday, you are to navigate an itinerary that follows roughly the outer perimeter wall of Vicenza and, using sketching as a primary tool (and photography as a secondary strategy to illustrate materiality and construction technology), document surviving evidence of the outer perimeter walls. Additionally, using your on-line research of Vicenza maps, document evidence of remaining fragments or map/geographic clues of the earlier inner walls that you can discover. We are particularly interested in how the surviving fragments have been integrated into the city fabric, how the walls have shaped the current urban form and constructional/materiality clues that help to identify the wall today. Your results should be posted on the VIA blog for class discussion on Friday.
Itinerary for approximate location of outer perimeter wall:
Start at the studio. Turn left on Contra SS. Apostoli and walk south to Contra Ponte Furo and then west over the Ponte Furo Bridge. Move along the north edge of the Campo Marzo Park along the Roggia Seriola water course to Viale Roma. Go north (passed Eurospar) to the Castello Gate. Cross the east end of the Giardino Salvi park and traverse the bridge and through the Porta Novo gate to Mure Porta Nova. Travel west along Mure Porta Nova & Contra Mure della Rocchetta to the dead end. Go north one block on Contra Mure San Rocco to Via Bonello and then west thru the arched gate to Viale Mazzini and then north to Viale B. D'Alviano to Viale F. Lli Bandiera then along Viale Rodolphi and Via Ceccarini and Via Legione Gallieno and Vialle Margherita and Viale Risorgimento and Viale X Giugno to the Campo Marzo park and back to the studio.
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