Restoration of a Rationalist Building

Selected by the Jury of the XIII edition of the City of Oderzo Architecture Award

“The small rationalist building, in the inside courtyard of an ancient palazzo in the centre of Padua, has been saved by means of a rigorous process of restoration, which has fully recreated the inside spaces and rapport with the garden, and has returned the early 20th century finishings to their original splendour”.
President of the Jury Prof. Carlo Magnani
The building to be restored stands inside the courtyard of an ancient palazzo in the historic centre of Padua. It is a building of modest proportions, which together with other small volumes built during the first half of the 20th century as service spaces goes to make up a “singular” internal courtyard. The small building, at one time used for wood storage, contains all the typological, compositional and formal elements we would expect of rationalist architecture. The intervention had two aims: the first, to restore the historical and material identity of the building, the second, to integrate it in its new functions without creating any dissonance. Given the serious state of repair of the building it was impossible to save the first floor ceiling or the floor of the terrace. Special care was taken with the external granolithic staircase, the outside full brick walls, the floor with marble-chip floor tiles, and the parapets and balustrade both of the stair and the terrace.