Museum

MUSEO DI CASTELVECCHIO

Endless dialogue

Italy - Verona

Dialogue. This is the concept behind the restoration project for the east wing of the Museo di Castelvecchio, left unfinished by Carlo Scarpa in his masterly restoration of 1964. First of all, a large and very thin iron panel determines the double nature of the entrance hall, effecting a filter with the mosaic room, and indicating the path through two engravings. This becomes a narrative expedient that divides and unites, anticipates and slows down, separates while inviting into the passage, as well as creating an emotional gradient between the entrance and the exhibition space.

The high exposed brick walls of the new exhibition hall allow us to grasp the connection between the walls and the ancient Roman floor. Here the mosaic is visible both from the hall and from the small square of Arco di Gavi where it was found, creating a visual and physical relationship that gives meaning to Scarpa’s intervention.

The interiors are characterised by material polyphony: plaster and exposed brickwork tell the building’s story, while the reflecting surfaces in black iron introduce into the project the theme of the passage, shadows and movement, which we can find in the washbasins based on the principle of overflowing water.

Here the stainless steel taps by CEA take up the round lines of the washbasins while the outlet openings recall the sources of water, so dear to Carlo Scarpa. A contrasting game between past and present, in an endless dialogue.


Project: Studio Bricolo Falsarella
Photo: Nicolò Galeazzi / Atelier XYZ