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Design Of The Tomba Brion Vega Architecture Essay

In my survey I intend to explicate carlo scarpas thought in his design of the Tomba brion Vega, his most visited work and analyze the design of each component separately and as a whole. It is a site of elegance and poesy and epitomises Carlo Scarpas usage of architecture to bring forth significance and feeling. Carlo Scarpa himself describes the grave as a tract ( Un’ora con Carlo Scarpa
The Brion Tomb is situated in the North of Italy in the small town San Vito d’Altivole near Treviso. It was designed for the household Brion by Carlo Scarpa after the decease of Giuseppe Brion. It was commissioned by the married woman of Giuseppe, Onorina Brion ; together they co-founded the electronics steadfast Brion-Vega.
Giuseppe was born in San Vito and the household owned a secret plan of land in the local graveyard every bit good as a funerary chapel which originally stood on the site. Scarpas original thought and his early work for the household was for a figure of seperate graves for different household members on the original graveyard secret plan. These early designs were to subsequently incorporated in to the concluding design. in 1969 the household bought an L shaped secret plan of land wrapped around the northern and eastern sides of the bing graveyard. Geting this secret plan of land allowed Scarpa to integrate all the household tombs into a individual maestro program for the Brion households resting topographic point.

Not taking with the mainline tendency that with money and power when decease occurs a immense shrine or memorial should be erected in memorial Scarpa went the opposite manner. Scarpa states “ I believe it is mistaken to see the Brion Cemetery the merchandise of a affluent capitalist. Rather it is rather the antonym ” . “ Of class I could hold merely made a big statue and left the remainder a lawn, but I enjoy doing things ” making this he avoided the narrow dictates of rationalism, taking instead to emphasize interior deepness, dreams, and nostalgia. In this he creates a poetic resting topographic point every bit much as a sculptural commemoration in a green, quieting garden.
In March 1970 the Plans for the site had reached their concluding signifier and planning permission was given for building. The Cemetery was completed in 1978 and is regarded by many as Scarpas chef-d’oeuvre.
Below is a quotation mark from Scarpa on his design of the Brion Tomba.
“ I consider this work, if you permit me, to be instead good and ( something ) which will acquire better over clip. I have tried to set some poetic imaginativeness into it, though non in order to make poetic architecture but to do a certain sort of architecture that could emanate a sense of formal poesy. I mean an uttered signifier that can go poesy, though, as I said before, you can non deliberately do poesy.
The deceased has asked to be near to ( the ) Earth since he was born in this small town – So I decided to construct a little arch, which I will name Arcosolium. Arcosolium is a Latin term from the clip of the early Christians in the Catacombs. Important individuals or sufferers were buried in them. ) I used a more dearly-won version… I thought it ( was ) a good thought for two people who had loved each other to be put in such a manner as to be able to recognize one another, after decease. Soldiers stand vertical, motions are human. The Arcosolium became an arch, a p p, an arch of strengthened concrete and would still hold looked like a p if I had n’t had it illustrated, I mean decorated. But alternatively of painting we used mosaics, A Venetian tradition that I interpreted in a different manner ”
The statement above merely shows how much thought went in to the design of his lifes chef-d’oeuvre.
The organic structure of the graveyard
The L shaped site has 5 chief focal points ; the arcosolium which was of great importance was placed on the north eastern corner to in Scarpas words “ benefit from the best position and sunniest exposure ” . The arcosolium acts as a sort of ocular flexible joint on the L shaped site fall ining the north and eastern sides of the site. The household Gravess are situated on the north wall of the site sheltered underneath a canopy which shelters them from the elements. On the south side of the L form is a marquee which floats over a Lilly pool. To the western terminal he designed square chapel which leads to a private entombment land for local priests. Another entryway manner to the site was constructed near to the marquee where the original funerary chapel stood.
The site is enclosed by a 2.3m high wall. Internally the positions out from the site about go a portion of the design and Looking towards the site the 60deg incline of the wall directs sight over the graveyard doing minimal obstructor of the positions out from the town whilst besides dissembling its internal parts. Scarpa acknowledged that he “ had captured the sense of the countryside, as the Brions wished ” ( Scarpa 1978-84 )
The Arcosolium
The Arcosolium in history has been situated within a Catholic burial chamber. A individual catacomb would incorporate multiple arcosolium for of import people and sufferer. They are arched deferrals carved from solid stone with a solid rock casket sarcophagus to the underside. The arch and around it were frequently decorated with symbolic frescoes.
In the image to the left is the arcosolium which is situated in Via Latina, Cubiculum E, a catacomb in Rome. You can clearly see the arched deferral to the rear and the sacredly painted walls.
Scarpas arcosolium is the chief focal point for the whole grave, moving as a flexible joint between the two perpendicular countries of the site. The two caputs of the household are buried here and is hence sited with importance and was built on the north east corner of the site. Unlike the solid arch of the historic Catholic arcosolium the arch Scarpa designed is sleek and slender and is made out of concrete and bows over the deep-set land on which sit the two burial chambers.
The asymetical arch has four constituents or ocular niceties which make the whole. The arch itself is visually two parts with the perpendicular chief arch or the anchor crossing the burial chambers and below this sits a drifting plane which shelters the crypts. The anchor has four fives which run the length of the arch. These fives are closed to their bottom so to shelter the residents. The two natation planes are decoratively layered to their topside instead like the arcosolium ornament of old. These are connected to the 3rd and 4th constituents of the arch by pin articulations and are the two concrete pedestals which sit at the two terminals of the arch and land the design and besides convert the otherwise compressional construction of an arch in to a tensile construction. The plinths themselves are split in to two parts with a solid mass cresting the arch and a more dynamic signifier stoping the completed arch. The pedestals are decorated non with pictures or stuffs but with the zag zig signifier which dominates the cemetary. The two concerete pedestals are orthogonally stepped three dimensionally decreasing with weight the farther off from the arch they are.
Below the arch the two burial chambers sit in a deep-set handbill bowl which is sheltered by the arch above. Originally this round base home base was to be surrounded by a H2O channel emanating from the north pool. The tombs themselves are made out of two tone marble with the sides facing each other being coal black, the top bed a speckled, black marble and the bottom bed a more grained white marble. The ebony boards on the facing planes of the caskets give them a softer touch. The two crypts are sat side by side underneath the arch and thin to each other as though they were seeking to touch. This is besides reiterated on the bottom of the multitudes. Scarpa non desiring to anchor the two objects excessively much curved the bottom of them doing them seem movable and non stuck to the land. Scarpa described it like this “ It is as it should be that the two people who loved each other in life to flex toward each other in recognizing after decease ” . A sense of Scarpas love affair can be seen here.
In Yutak Saito ‘s book Carlo Scarpa, he describes how the two burial chambers are perceived to “ drift like two boats beneath the arch. ” This is evocative of the edifices of Scarpas beloved Venice.
Whilst under the arch the colored glass tiles can be seen. Yutak Saito says “ The ceiling of the arch is covered in glass tiles, giving the sense of heavenly glare ” The glass tiles run either side of an onyx strip which runs down the center of the four fives of the arch, these “ omit a milklike white translucency ” .
Brion Tomba cemetery entryway
The entryway lies down an avenue of trees which run the old Village Cemetery. Upon attack the first thing noticed is the two intersecting circles which lay at the terminal of the little corridor and their framed image of the lawn and the Hedera helix covered wall beyond. The entryway is sat beside other bing graves and its graduated table is as those of the bing grave. This gives the Brion Tomb a tardis like feel one time inside holding entered through here. The entryway is decorated with a zigzag design like the arcosolium with horizontal pieces through the mass in which the sky or in Scarpas oculus the celestial spheres can be seen. On come ining the square entryway opens up like a cave and upon talking unusual reverberations resile off the zigzagged indoors. Again horizontal pieces allow the sight of the celestial spheres whilst inside this dark entryway manner.
Four stairss lead up to the corridor beyond. These are somewhat offset to the left manus side giving you a sense of way in which 1 should go. This little gesture The intersecting circles at the terminal of the corridor are rimmed with ruddy and bluish glass tiles. They signify the Earth and the celestial spheres and the Earth and the intersected subdivision signifies the religious universe which may lie in between. You can besides see this looking through the two circles with the green grass meaning the Earth the sky the oasiss and the Grey concrete wall which splits the two the religious universe. With these two intensions Scarpa wanted to instil a sense of how close the three universes are and how they intersect with each other. The corridor splits left and right now. The left manus side is brighter and beckons you down, another way index of which Scarpa is good known for. Looking down the corridor the left manus side of the arcosolium can be seen with the countryside in the background and the corridor opens a few meters down. It opens to the right with the left manus side go oning farther. At the transitional point between unfastened and closed a H2O class continues the line of the construction which runs down in to the arcosolium adjacent to the paseo. Along this paseo are a set of beginning stairss which lead up to the grazed country above. These stairss are of different thicknesses with each possessing a different sound when treaded upon.
If you turn right at the corridor the way leads you down a darkened corridor which opens up onto a drifting way which leads to the raised marquee, the marquee sits on the pool that feeds the watercourse.
The Pavillion
The marquee sits on the north side of the site above a shallow organic structure of H2O. At a distance it seems to drift above the H2O. It is supported by a set of slender steel columns which rise out of the H2O. The thought behind the marquee was to make a canopy under which the psyche of the dead may come in to intercede. It is accessed via the chief entryway manner along a thin dark corridor and so through a glass door which is opened with an luxuriant system of blocks which are seeable on the other side of the wall to the glass door.
The top of the marquee is clad in lumber and Yutaka Saito in his book Carlo Scarpa notes the similarities in the deepness and accent of the design associating to the series of torri Gatess of the fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Below the weather-beaten lumber box sits a thin metallic modesty panel painted green and is textured with a form of nails which softens the strong stuff doing the infinite more comfy. From its exterior the marquee looks like a solid construction and a sense of weight is felt on sight but the visceras are hollow which lets light go through down in to the infinite where underneath sits a bench on which Scarpa imagined the liquors could rest after they have had their playday in the environing gardens of the graveyard. Its openness gives a connexion between the spirit universe and ours leting passageway of psyches in to it.
Underneath the marquee a little seating country is found for the liquors and this sits on a little breakwater which seems to drift a few centimeters above the pool. This may non be a piece of aesthetic design but a great cognition of how H2O and building stuffs respond over clip with staining and corrosion. This can besides be seen on the back wall of the marquee with it looking to drift merely above the H2O degree.
Use of H2O
Carlo Scarpa was of Venetian beginning and this influenced his designs in that H2O and the effects it caused were frequently cardinal elements of his designs. Bodies of H2O and/or H2O classs were elemental. He spent most of his life in Venice, rolling down its narrow gangways with edifices either drifting on or reflected in H2O ; a universe altering with the wane and flow of the tides.
The brion grave is no exclusion with Scarpa planing two pools at opposing terminals of the site which were to be connected by thin watercourses that would weave inbetween the grave linking them with a sense of life or motion of the streamlined H2O. A relationship between the laguna and the canal can be envisioned here.
The construct was non to the full designed in but can still be seen in the signifier of a channel running between the marquee and the arcosolium.
Bing from Venice Scarpa knew the consequence of the tide and how this could consequence stuffs and sometimes whole constructions, submersing their lower floors on some occasions and the H2O class and pool in the graveyard were designed to debar deluging the next infinites when it rains.
The pools themselves are instead shallow being merely half a meter in deepness at their deepest point with the zigzag form taking down to the lowest point giving the H2O a sense of volume and a topographic point for the Sun to play in, making traveling shadows and contemplations of the environing constructions during daytime hours.
There are a figure of H2O channels on the site. They all flow to the arcosolium and narrow as they get nearer. This narrowing of the channels give the feeling of a sense of impulse and in kernel, life.
Brion Family Tomb
The little household grave is situated on the south side of the site and sits against the exterior wall giving a sense of shadiness for its residents. It is a triangular molded construction with a little entryway to the West. The entryway is little and was designed so that to come in one must bow as a mark of regard to the asleep residents. Internally the infinite is little yet the horizontal slits in the signifier allow the external openness to fall in with the internal infinite. The roof of the grave narrows towards the top with a piece taken out at its extremum. This was once more the thought that the liquors could roll freely around the site and come back to their resting topographic points for rest.
The chapel and Sacristy
The chapel sits on the E of the site and its importance is emphasised by the continual perpendicular planes that cut through the horizontal plane of the level lawn. This accent shows its hierarchy and label the construction as being the edifice of most importance. There are two entrywaies to the chapel, one through the gardens and the 2nd which is used for more formal occasions such as church mass.
The entryway through the gardens shows this hierarchy the most, the tall walls create a strong perpendicular volume to go down. Two little stairss are at the entryway and act as a passage between the less formal garden infinite and the more formal chapel beyond.
On the left manus side wall a grid form of concrete lines was formed with 10mm deferrals in which beds of plaster were trowelled and so polished which reflects light down the corridor. On this wall the door to the private vestry can be found and follows the same grid clog as the walls somewhat camouflaging it to place its privateness.
At the terminal of the corridor stands a big steel and plaster skiding lattice door reminiscent of the manner of Otto Wagner of whom Scarpa was a fan and the traditional Nipponese screen. Beyond the doors stands the chapel and the Chinese manner threshold that leads in to it which allows for the easy transition of caskets and on juncture to get by with a big Numberss of people.
The prevailing stuff used in the building of the chapel was once more superimposed concrete. The floor is made of little cobble like rocks which run at a 45deg angle to the room towards the alter. Two marble stairss lead up to the alter and junctions between the stuffs was planned meticulously.
The
Conclusion-The Journey
The journey was really of import in the planning of the site and all the senses were thought of when planing. Although the site is made up of tonss of separate elements they are all portion of the whole and are linked by tracts sometimes physical and sometimes psychological.
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