The bookELEMENTS OF VENICE reveals,through the analysis of single architectural elements, the metamorphic nature of Venice, a city in which most buildings underwent throughout the centuries substantial volumetric and formal transformations informed by political and cultural shifts.
Developed as a parallel research project of Fundamentals – the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale curated by Rem Koolhaas – the book ELEMENTS OF VENICE offers insights on Venetian facades, stairs, corridors, floors, ramps, ceilings, doors, hearths, windows, balconies and walls.
Product not [only] of the mind but of societal organization, the elements are isolated from their picture-perfect context and from the postcard view of Venice that is impressed in our retinas, introducing the reader – through a combination of collages, drawings, photographs, paintings, film stills and quotes – to a radically new way of seeing Venice. Like a camera obscura photograph cuts through the often irrelevant embellishments of architecture to reveal the underlying skeleton of a building (i.e. its elements), this guide will allow the reader to better understand the fundamental transformations that have shaped Venice during the past ten centuries.
