The Fondaco dei Tedeschi (which can be translated as "German Courtyard") was built in 1228 to serve as both a residential building, a place of trade and a warehouse for merchants from German lands, who were rapidly growing rich in Venice. In 1505, a devastating fire almost destroyed the palazzo, but three years later, in 1508, it was restored according to the design of Girolamo Tedesco and decorated with frescoes by Giorgione and Titian (their surviving fragments can be seen today in the Ca D'Oro palace). In 1797, due to the fall of the Venetian Republic, Fondaco dei Tedeschi was abandoned by merchants and has since been used for other purposes. When Mussolini came to power, the palazzo was roughly "restored" using concrete and for many years turned into a post office. In the complex biography of the building, a new period began in 2008: for an amount of 53 million euros, it was acquired by Benetton with the aim of turning it into a shopping center.
For a long time, there has been an outflow of indigenous people from Venice. This process is facilitated by many obvious factors: an incessant flow of tourists, as a result - constantly rising prices for everyday goods, the transformation of historically important buildings into shops or hotels. You can often hear from the Venetians that the city will soon turn into Disneyland at such a pace, and the aforementioned company Benetton, in their opinion, only accelerates this process. This company has been buying real estate in the city for a long time and adapting it for commercial purposes. This process was even described in a book called Benettown (City of Benetton), published by the economics department of one of the Venetian universities.
Shortly after the purchase, Benetton put Fondaco dei Tedeschi on the market with a long-term lease offer. At that moment, DFS, a Hong Kong luxury goods retailer known for its international chain of Duty Free stores, was actively looking for a platform for investment in Europe, however, large shopping centers were already operating in all key cities of the continent, and only in Venice there was an interesting one for the company. the situation is the absence of a large department store, where products of different brands would be collected under one roof. A deal was struck between the two companies.
To implement the project of transforming Fondaco dei Tedeschi into a store, leading specialists in their fields were invited: OMA bureau as architects (the company's portfolio includes such retail objects as
Prada flagship store in New York and renovation of KaDeWe department store in Berlin), Philippe Starck as bar and café designer, Jamie Fobert Architects studio for interior design of public spaces, Vittorio Radice as principal consultant (he is a member of the board of directors of Milan's main department store La Rinascente), Stefania Saviolo (Director of the Center for the Study of Luxury and Fashion at the University of Bocconi) - manager-trainee coach, Massimo Alaiamo (the first chef in history to be awarded three Michelin stars at 28) - in charge of catering.
The building of the palazzo has the status of a monument of history and architecture, despite the radical restructuring during its entire existence. For OMA architects, this was a certain difficulty: which stage of the building's history should be based on in the project, if there were so many of them in five centuries? A compromise was needed, and it was found: every architectural intervention proposed by the OMA bureau, in one way or another, shows the real essence of Fondaco dei Tedeschi and the layers of its rich and difficult "life", at the same time pragmatically considering the new commercial construction program and creating a number of public spaces open to the city - for example, the courtyard, through which you can freely pass at any time of the day, as through any campo square in Venice. Two additional entrances were added to the existing entrances, and the premises were combined into enfilades - just like in the original plans of the building. The walls of the galleries, once covered with frescoes, were also painted in places, but in a modern spirit. The corner rooms of the Fondaco remained intact due to their key role in the building's historic structure. A magnificent rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the Grand Canal and the surrounding area became a gift to residents and tourists. Previously, the luxury of seeing the city from a height could only be afforded for money - for example, by climbing the campanile of St. Mark's Cathedral or the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, or the delicate staircase of the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo - and now it can be done absolutely free of charge at Fondaco -dei-Tedeschi. Another innovation in Fondaco was the hall above the new glass ceiling - a reconstruction of the 19th century superstructure, originally just the roof of the courtyard. Now the new space is used for various events. In order to obtain the space required for the hall and make it accessible to visitors, the roof was placed 1.6 meters above its original position and is now supported by a new steel structure. The interior walls here consist of movable panels covered with oxidized brass in various shades. The new additional steel and glass floor below the courtyard looks like a modern version of the coffered ceilings characteristic of Italian architecture - cassettoni: OMA's nod to the country's cultural heritage.
An important element of the reconstruction of Fondaco was the creation of vertical links in the building. Now it has bright red escalators decorated with wood and brass. On the side of Calle del Fontego, the central space is occupied by a new staircase, which was realized as an insert into the building. She is an exemplary example of careful heritage management: it is a steel structure attached to a new concrete wall, which, in turn, does not touch the existing historic walls. Thus, the original structure of Fondaco becomes visible. For the facing of the staircase balustrade, brass was used in a natural and oxidized state. However, the historic structure of the building is also visible in the elevator with a glass wall and ceiling: as it moves between floors, you can look at the stonework of Fondaco dei Tedeschi.
It should be noted the use of traditional materials in the reconstruction - but in innovative ways. For example, the iron fences of the Fondaco gallery spaces combine OMA's design with the work of local craftsmen, while Istrian stone and Rosso di Verona marble form a reimagined red and white Venetian ornament on the courtyard floor. Brass is most often found in the project: this metal appears repeatedly both in its natural state and transformed into a colorful gradient through a special oxidation process - from cobalt blue to light golden.
The DFS management wanted to make the character of the complex as local as possible, which is why Fondaco dei Tedeschi, in addition to the products of international corporations, presents real Venetian goods: high-quality Murano glass, hand-made gondolier hats and more. Fondaco should now become a place where tourists can buy one hundred percent authentic Italian products, accessories, souvenirs, and, of course, eat Italian.
The Fondaco dei Tedeschi project, perhaps, caused an overly violent reaction from the public. In fact, other shopping centers, albeit somewhat smaller, but also occupying key positions in the center of Venice, were designed with much less respect for both the history of the city as a whole and the architecture of their buildings. Objectively, it should be noted that Fondaco dei Tedeschi was in an extremely neglected state for many years, and the post office, which occupied two of its floors, did not decorate it in any way, but for some reason did not cause negative feelings among the Venetians. Well, would the international media talk about this project if it had not been carried out by Rem Koolhaas? Perhaps not.
