Fortezza Vicino a Venezia

Ottorino Boesso’s concrete bastion of good design may have been intended as reaction to Scarpa. And this in the Veneto region, along the banks of the Rivier Brenta no less, where the great architect is much loved and admired. If so, it was an act of even greater love and admiration because his approach to materials has been assimilated and then applied it too the materials which are more humble (the design ennobles them) and more commonplace ( the design renders them unique). And there is also opposition to landscape – in the sense that is what fortresses used to do, and this building is a small fortress - but above all to “anonymous” building, which is really nothing more than non-cultural architecture. Outside, the imposing grey-white and concrete walls of Boesso’s building are virtually windowless. Inside, around the impluvium, they are totally open on three levels.