Castelvecchio Mixing Old and New

Castelvecchio

Mixing old and new architecture in an aesthetically pleasing way to maintain a sense of history while keeping buildings useful and practical in the modern age. A truly visionary architect is able not only to achieve this meld of new practicalities and aesthetics with traditional and historic preservation, but is actually able to render a sort of homage to historic aesthetics while putting their own personal signature into the design of a building. Carlo Scarpa is one such architect, and the work he did updating and modernizing the medieval castle in Verona, Italy, known simply as Castelvecchio or the "Old Castle" is one of the most impressive and enduring monuments to his skill. While maintaining the integrity of the structure and its aesthetics and history of the castle, Scarpa's own sense of aesthetics and its far more modern shaping are apparent in many of the details of Cstelvecchio. In addition, he practical changes he made to transform the castle from a former fortress and housing unit to a modern museum.

The changes that Scarpa made to the interior of Castelvecchio for the specific purpose of displaying certain works of art reflect all of these elements -- a devotion to the practicalities of a museum, a commitment to preserving history, and a passion for his own sense of design and aesthetics. One of the most impressive examples of this melding of different (though not disparate) purposes is the display of a medieval statue on a beam of concrete that juts out approximately twenty feet from the wall and hovers many feet above the floor of the room. A walkway runs near this beam, allowing for a view of the statue. The concrete fits well with the stone of the original castle, and at the same time gives a distinctly modern texture to the room. The very existence of the beam defies anything possible when the castle was originally built, and the statue sitting at its free hanging terminus seems a very ironic yet fitting touch in this context.

This specific example is also indicative of some of the general ways in which the building was modified and updated. In his restoration of Castelvecchio, Carlo Scarpa uses the basic geometric designs and patterns of the original medieval castle, but accentuates, develops, and emphasizes these geometric expressions in a very modern way. The concrete beam in the example above compliments the angularity of the room at large, but is almost an exaggeration of it. The beam itself s composed of three slabs of concrete at right angles to each other, forming three sides of a square or a sort of sideways "c," with the bottom open to the floor. Not only does the beams itself represent an intrusion of modern geometric appreciation into the castle, but even the construction of the beam itself reflects Scarpa's extreme devotion to geometry and geometric expression. This amplifies the geometry that is such an inherent part of the building, updating and reinforcing the original aesthetics of Castelvecchio.