GRAN TEATRO "LA FENICE", VENICE
categories
Culture and Education
area
Europe
brand
Molteni&C
projects
Aldo Rossi and Executive Design by Arassociati
One of the most important and historic opera houses in Europe, Gran Teatro "La Fenice" is located in Venice’s historic center, near Piazza San Marco. "La Fenice" is Italian for "The Phoenix." Like the bird rising from the ashes, the theater itself has burned down and been rebuilt multiple times. The theater reopened in 2003 with new, visionary design from Aldo Rossi and Executive Design by Arassociati, featuring a curation of furnishings by Molteni&C.
Among the most original elements in Aldo Rossi’s design for the La Fenice Theatre are the profound transformation and evolution of the single parts making up the theatre, and the desire to create links between the theatre and the Veneto, going beyond the city of Venice. The design takes on contemporary compositional, architectonic and urban themes and combines philology, restoration, innovation and new building work.
The surrounding city is in itself a theatre and the La Fenice is conceived as a small city with recognizable parts making up its whole. This complex design is summed up in the extraordinary beauty and richness of the details in the section drawn in freehand by Aldo Rossi himself, using the basis of technical boards: a long sequence which summarizes the meaning of each single element in the whole theatre design.
The main façade, in campo San Fantin, leads into the Sale Apollinee which have been divided up so as to highlight the restored parts, the smaller rooms and the decorated ceiling; the Sala Nuova, with its Palladian element, is the center of the structure between the Sale Apollinee and the completely rebuilt theatre itself.
The stage looks over the sectioned boxes, the stalls and the under stalls: at center stage the lost curtain with its Victory of Lepanto symbolizes the historical reconstruction of this part of the theatre.
The building housing the stage machinery closes the sequence towards the waterfront. As part of this important reconstruction, Molteni&C designed and furnished various furnishings for the theatre, creating a wooden box inside this prestigious container: boxes, paneling, ceilings. The furnishings consist of seats, entrance furniture and foyer seating.
The realistic Palladian basilica designed by Aldo Rossi for the Sala Nuova was particularly complex. Completely in solid non-treated cypress, the woodworking includes the six-meter high section and the balcony with turned columns and beams in keeping with Palladian style. Absolute precision was necessary in the jointing, so as to allow flooring, engraving and the addition of special decoration.
GIANGIACOMO FELTRINELLI FOUNDATION,
categories
Culture and Education
area
Europe
brand
Molteni&C
projects
Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with Coima Image
The Feltrinelli Porta Volta complex, the first building in Italy by the firm Herzog & de Meuron that is open to the public, plays an important role in a strategic area of Milan that has been undergoing a far-reaching process of urban regeneration in recent years. For this important project, UniFor provided the furnishings and partition systems for the three upper floors, including both series products and custom works conceived specifically for the unique spaces by Studio Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with Coima Image.