Procuratie Vecchie

The project for the renovation of the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco in Venice was contracted to David Chipperfield Architects Milan by Generali in 2017, after obtaining authorization in January 2019 from the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Municipality of Venice and Laguna, the project has now received permission to build from the Municipality.

For the first time in 500 years, a large part of the Procuratie Vecchie will be made accessible to the public. The historic building will host the activities of The Human Safety Net, the initiative set up by Generali to support the most vulnerable communities in those countries where the Group is present.

The project is not defined by a single concept or architectural gesture, but through a series of interventions that address the complexity of the work.

These include the restoration of the first and second floors, the reorganization of accessibility and usability of the building through the inclusion of new staircases, the renewed central entrance on the third floor with access to the raised courtyards.

The intervention promoted by Generali will also enhance the third floor to include exhibition spaces open to the public and linked to The Human Safety Net Foundation, work spaces and an auditorium.

The Procuratie Vecchie, which develop along the entire north side of Piazza San Marco, were designed by the architect Bartolomeo Bon and later by Jacopo Sansovino in the first half of the Sixteenth century, under the renovatio urbis program achieved by the Doge Andrea Gritti.

The project by David Chipperfield Architects Milan will not only facilitate the influx of the public thanks to an enhancement of the internal circulation, but will all also restore integrity to the structure throughout the restoration of the architectural work as a whole as well as particular elements that have deteriorated or been compromised.

The project will reunify the interior spaces of the Procuratie Vecchie and introduce clarity into the building. The restoration work will recuperate original venetian materials and traditional workmanship involving specialist companies and local artisans throughout.

The floors, for example, will be in venetian terrazzo and pastellone. These works are integrated with those of the 2009 project by the architect Gretchen Harnischfeger Alexander, still in progress, which includes the renovation of the main façade on Piazza San Marco, as well as some internal façades, with some structural interventions and a new fire protection system.

The complex of the Procuratie Vecchie owned by Generali includes about 12,400 square metres of total gross area which occupy approximately 85% of the total area of the portion of the building that closes the north side of Piazza San Marco, extending over 43 of the 50 external arches for a length of 152 metres.

Architect: David Chipperfield Architects Milan, Italy

Partners: David Chipperfield, Giuseppe Zampieri

Associate Director: Cristiano Billia

Associates: Adolfo Berardozzi, Andrea Cocco, Carlo Zucchia

Project team: Simone Diego Alessi, Federica Amoruso, Thomas Benk, Corrado Bongiorno, Cecilia Bottoni, Niccolò Brussa, Teresa Cancellari, Marta Capacciola, Francesca Carino, Filippo Carcano, Francesca Carino, Carlo Federico Cattò, Fabiano Cocozza, Maria Elena Codazzi, Paolo Dell‘Elce, Stefano Goffi, Tsukasa Goto, Samuel Lodetti, Eugenio Matteazzi, Tommaso Meena, Daniel Mira García, Sofia Nobis, Brigid O’Donnell, Stefano Penazzi, Matthijs Sioen, Tiziana Staffieri, Davide Tassera, Federico Turelli, Wouter Verstraete, Maria Chiara Virgili

Competition team: Cosmin Amato, Pietro Bagnoli, Corrado Bongiorno, Cecilia Bottoni, Filippo Carcano, Carlo Federico Cattò, Tommaso Certo, Fabiano Cocozza, Maria Elena Codazzi, Federica Corrà, Paolo Dell‘Elce, Tsukasa Goto, Nicola Guercilena, Seunggeun Jee, Chiara Lippi, Eugenio Matteazzi, Gabriele Pagani, Paolo Volpetti, Federica Zerbo
In collaboration with
David Chipperfield Architects, Berlin: Thomas Benk, Anke Fritzsch, Christopher Jonas Zero4Uno Ingegneria srl, Venice, Italy: Romeo Scarpa Franco Gazzarri Architetto, Mestre, Italy.