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Architects: Filippo Bricolo & Bricolo Falsarella Associates
- Area: 161 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:atelier XYZ
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Manufacturers: Ceadesign
Text description provided by the architects. Filippo Bricolo’s project (Bricolo Falsarella Associates) for the Castelvecchio Museum regards the restoral of the central part of the East Wing which was left unfinished by Carlo Scarpa’s masterful restoration in 1964. The fulcrum of the intervention is the new Mosaic Room designed to host a large fragment of Roman pavement from a second century AD domus which was discovered in the little square located on the east side of the castle between the ancient Via Postumia and the River Adige.
The new exhibition hall is connected to the main courtyard of the castle through a high access space that also serves as the entrance to Sala Boggian. A large and very thin iron panel delimits the dual nature of the hallway: on the one hand it acts as a necessary filter leading to the new Mosaic room and on the other hand, it indicates the way to the room on the first floor.
The panel seems to brush against the floor and the steps of the stairs and it bears two strategic, horizontal incisions on opposite sides thus indicating the two different directions. Above the incisions the words "Mosaic Room" and "Sala Boggian" are written in iron out of the fonts designed, but never used, by Scarpa for the concert hall entrance.
On a second level regarding the panel, is an archway formed by four, 10 mm thick, black iron plates. The archway has the role of determining a small ritual of access to the Mosaic Room. This is necessary in order to create an emotional gradient between the entrance hall and the exhibition space. Regarding lighting, the archway makes use of black iron’s reflectance characteristics to create dialogue between the two spaces. Standing in the entrance hall, the visible side of the archway reflects the warm lights of the Mosaic Room casting them towards the entrance area .
Iron also highlights the changing light at different times of day until they are unexpectedly warmed up by the onset of dusk. In the Mosaic Room, the same vertical side reflects the lights and colours of the museum’s courtyard into the Mosaic Room. In this way, the gateways becomes a hinge of reflections. This new threshold becomes a narrative device that divides but unites, that reveals but slows down, that creates distance but invites you to walk through.
Inside the new exhibition hall, the great mosaic seems to levitate in the bountiful space. The hall is characterized by high walls made of brick. The bricks were deliberately left visible without changing or deleting the patina of time. This helps to create a dialogue between the walls and the materiality of the ancient Roman floor.
The mosaic has been inserted diagonally into the space so as to be seen in its entirety from inside the room. This collocation also allows us to appreciate the view of the mosaic from outside the castle.
The renovation has restored dignity to this connecting room. An area on the side facing the square has been converted into lavatories and it is concealed by burned pitch-pine panelling, the same materials used by Scarpa to make the compass now present in the Mosaic Hall.
