Brion

"The best way is to walk lost" -Giamba

In the past week we have gone out to the countryside near Treviso in a town called Altivole. It was quite an experience out there, very different from Venice, but eye opening and enjoyable. After taking the train out to Montebelluna, we waited for Shun and Robert to go pick up the rental cars, and also waited for Giulia, our “TA” (who is not really a TA but a PHD in Architecture who is providing another point of view on Brion and our experience).

Shun and Robert arrived with the cars and we met Lucio, who owned the Agriturismo where the girls stayed and then Giulia arrived. We drove out to Lucio’s and met his family and saw the house where we were told the girls were going to be treated to incredible breakfasts every morning, made by Lucio. The guys were going to stay at Francesca’s Agraturismo. It was nice, on a cherry orchard and vineyard, but the breakfasts could not compare to Lucio’s.

We spent the majority of our time at Brion cemetery. The cemetery was commissioned by the Brion family and added on to a public cemetery. We staggered our entrances so as not to ruin people’s first impression. Some people entered through the public cemetery, but I entered through Brion’s entrance. It was a very surprising place. Everywhere there were complex, Escher-esque, concrete structures built in different heights and layers. Scarpa used a stair motif going up and down, in and out in every direction so that everything seemed to lead somewhere. At the same time however, there was green space everywhere, grass and trees and bushes. There was life everywhere. Trickling water and ponds filled with Koi, lizards crawling all around, and birds fluttering about. It was a very weird contrast for a cemetery- so much time, so much life. The walls along the Brion slope inwards so that you cannot see the corn and farmland outside. All you can see is a dream world, a special, isolated island of paradise.

There is a corridor, similar to a soto portego that leads both to the public cemetery and also through a gate to a little peninsula set on the pond at the back of the private cemetery. Beppi, the caretaker let us through the gate and into the chapel in the cemetery so that we had full access. It was very fortunate.

We spent four days in Brion, first getting used to the space, then exploring it individually to try and understand it, then observing it in groups, and finally one last day for closure. I was too overwhelmed by the space to get anything concrete. There was just a flood of impressions and thoughts but it wasn’t until the second day that I was able to describe anything. The second day I explored and sat and thought, realizing how bizarre it was to have such a dream like place next to a cemetery. How odd it was, that a place that felt so natural and so comfortable could be a place for the dead, so starkly different from the cemetery adjacent to it. We partnered up (I was with Reem this time) and discussed that place only to break up into two groups of five to discuss with in front of the whole group later that day. We sat in the chapel and talked for about an hour and a half before leaving that night for Asolo for dinner.

Asolo is a beautiful little town up in the mountains. Apparently it used to be a place where artists would go to for inspiration and it was easy to see why. Looking out down the mountain, at the lights, and the trees, out at the moon and the stars, it was a very expressive scene. It seemed so perfect, so fixed, but it was all the more special because it was natural, real. I ate dinner with Melodie, Shun, Giulia, and Anisha that night at a fantastic restaurant. The food was good, the conversation was good, and we were happy to be away, briefly, from the full groups setting. A ten-person group is small enough for the work we are doing and the discussions we have, but ten people at every meal can be a bit overwhelming.

The next day at Brion we got back into our pairs and explored and studied and thought again, to have discussions with Shun and Gulia about what we observed, what we thought. Of course there was more sketching on everyone’s part too, and more photographs, but the battery on my camera died, and while I tried to sketch, it is certainly not my forte, so I took lots of notes, and comments about the place. I realized on the third day that the natural calm was not so natural. Someone designed the entire place, in great detail and passion. While it may have felt natural, it was entirely constructed. What was real was the corn outside. So to me, this contrived place was built to direct thought in a particular environment, not necessarily a natural one. This sparked an interesting conversation with Shun and with some others. Ira and I also managed that day to climb up on top of the chapel and walk along a little pathway built up there. Scarpa designs parts of his work even where it may never be seen- plants on the roof and a sliding sky light that can only be accessed from 20 feet in the air with no clear way up.

On the fourth day, we went back in the mid afternoon one last time only to get caught in an incredible storm. The wind was blowing at around 50 miles per hour, the rain was falling in sheets and water flew in every direction, through all of the openings in the concrete, dancing off the steps and the grass. It was absolutely beautiful, and wild, and torrential. Then came the hale. It was small initially, about the size of a pea but soon it began to fall the size of a half dollar or so all over Brion. We were in the shelter of the chapel, but I couldn’t help but run out into the rain (before the hale began) and see Brion in such a wild state. It was very different from the calm, tranquil, dream world before.

After Brion, we left Altivole to head back to Venice for two nights to relax, and rediscover Scarpa in the city. The Biennale had begun; tourist season had begun, so the city was very different. But we did not feel as rushed as our first week to the city. Maybe we were used to it, maybe because we had no check in deadlines, but time seemed to go by much more slowly. I revisited Campo Ghetto and my other favorite parts of the city and finally got some touristy shopping of my own done. It was weird to feel like everyone else for once. The way that we have been traveling and exploring has made me feel a little elitist compared to the other tourists who come for a day to see San Marco and Rialto and leave. It felt different to be acting like everyone else in those parts of the city. But that was fleeting. At night I saw the tides come up and embrace the city, flooding San Marco, the edges of the Rialto, and the edges of every fondamenta and rio terra in the city. It was an incredible site.
The next day we went about our way again without any assignment aside from keeping Scarpa in mind. I traveled with Anisha for the most part, running errands and continually exploring and then we met up with Melodie, Ira, Mahati, and Juliet to go on a Gondola ride. We owed Melodie for her connection with Giamba, the gondolier who took us around. He took us on the longer route for the price of the shorter, and he was remarkable. He told us the history of Venice as he rowed us down the rios and the Grand Canal. He had an incredible voice, and an incredible way of telling stories. He was a true orator. While we heard music from other gondoliers, I couldn’t help but feel that we had gotten a special experience from Giamba rather than just an expensive, romantic outing that other people experienced. I suppose I forgot to mention one last odd part of our two-night stay in Venice.

We stayed in a convent. I had certainly never done that before, but it was very nice, if not very secure and secluded. The doors locked precisely at midnight and opened precisely at 6:00am so the few people who didn’t make it back on time stayed outside and slept elsewhere. The rooms were fine, but the best part was the courtyard and the balcony. There was an internal courtyard with tables and chairs to relax but on the second level there was a pure concrete patio with a couple of benches where you could lay out at night and watch the stars and the moon. It was a full moon just a couple of days ago so the moon was still particularly bright and lit up the city beautifully.

And now I am back in Monselice, preparing to start my final project (which will be explained tomorrow) and we will work in the Villa all week until we present on Friday. So there may not be anything interesting left until then, but then again there may be. This place constantly surprises me, and something exciting can happen at a moments notice. For now though, I will go to sleep again dreaming about the questions floating in my head from Brion, and Venice, Il Palazetto and IUAV, and see if I can incorporate any of them into my project.

Buona Notte.