Il Fondaco dei Tedeschi
Visit: oma.com/projects/il-fondaco-dei-tedeschi
Il Fondaco dei Tedeschi was a trading post for German merchants before becoming a customs house under Napoleon in 1806. Depicted by Canaletto and other masters, and photographed numberless times as the impressive but anonymous backdrop for the Rialto, the Fondaco - at 11,000m2 one of Venice’s largest buildings - now stands as a muted icon of the Venetian mercantile era. The Fondaco will reactivate the building in the form of a modern department store.
In tandem with the department store, the renovation will create three major areas of commerce-free public space. The escalator reaching from the courtyard to the OMA’s renovation scheme - composed both of architecture and public programming - continues the Fondaco dei Tedeschi’s tradition of vitality and adaptation. Venice will acquire a landmark that will become a shared civic facility and a crucial element in the cultural fabric of the city. By joining the team during design development phase, I was put in charge of studying various details on materiality, testing design strategies in physical models, as well as producing documents for publications related to the project.
Role: Designer
Tools Used: AutoCAD, Adobe Suite, Rhinoceros
Design Phase: Design Development
Company: OMA
Category: Client Work
