House in Venice

Some 470 flats and 300 student dwellings are being built on a 32,000 m2 former industrial siteon the island of Giudecca. House D, containing 16 flats, is situated at the junction between two canals on the northern edge of the site. In its proportions and use of materials, this compact, four-storey volume is reminiscent of a small Venetian palazzo. The graphic effect of the facade is based on the use of three different window forms: broad French windows to the living rooms; narrow ones to the bedrooms; and square openings to the kitchens and bathrooms. The irregular arrangement of the windows reflects the different layouts of thedwellings. The openings have traditional stone surrounds, but with different proportions that accentuate the various depths of the reveals. The small square windows are flush with the facade; the French windows are set flush with the internal face of the walls. The plinth zone of the building is clad to various heights with stone slabs. The graphic character of the facade is rounded off by a stone band atthe top of the upstand walls that mask the flat-pitched roof on the sides facing the canals. Cut into the volume of the building is a trapezoidal courtyard, the white rendered walls of which are contrasted with the grey canal facades. The entrance and staircase are reached from the courtyard. The double-skin external brick walls consist of a load-bearing outer layer and an inner skin of cored bricks.