1919/27 Gino Coppedè (1866/1927)
Known
popularly as QUARTIERE COPPEDÈ (Coppedè Neighborhood) after its
architect
Commissioned
in 1913 by the tycoons Cerruti and Becchi of the Società Anonima Edilizia
Moderna (Modern Construction Limited Company)
Architectural
and visionary pastiche of 31,000 m² (7.7 acres) comprising 18 large buildings
and 27 smaller ones built around the central Piazza Mincio
Coppedè
directed the works until his death in 1927, with an interruption due to the
First World War. The main part of the district, however, was completed in 1921
After
Coppedè's death the job was completed and directed by his son Paolo Emilio André
The
Florentine architect, in his eclecticism, mixed different styles: contemporary
art deco and art nouveau as well as elements with variations of Baroque,
Gothic, Moorish and Mannerism, combined with references ranging from the Middle
Ages to Ancient Greece
A lot of
travertine stone was used in tribute to the Roman tradition and for the
interiors majolica was used for kitchens, wood flooring for living rooms and
Pompeian mosaics for bathrooms
“The whole
thing seems focused to a taste for the wondrous, the need for luxury required
by the clients specifying an instance of the upper-class society for which this
architecture, even in the mid-twenties, was the ultimate sophistication” (Mauro
Cozzi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani)
Among the buildings:
PALAZZINA
DEL RAGNO (Small Palace of the Spider)
PALAZZI DEGLI AMBASCIATORI (Palaces of Ambassadors)
PALAZZO IN PIAZZA MINCIO (Palace in Piazza Mincio)
VILLINO
DELLE FATE (Cottage of the Fairies)
In Piazza
Mincio there is the FONTANA DELLE RANE (Fountain of the Frogs) 1920/24
In Via
Tagliamento 9, adjacent to the district, there is the PIPER CLUB, historic
concert venue and nightclub opened in 1965
It was
originally decorated with works of art, including two paintings by Andy Warhol
(1928/87), some of Mario Schifano (1934/98) and works by Piero Manzoni
(1933/63)
Real giants of the music of the second half of the twentieth
century played here live, such as The Who, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Genesis, David Bowie, Sly
and the Family Stone, Lucio Battisti, Duke Ellington, and more recently,
Nirvana
No comments:
Post a Comment