Carlo Scarpa and The Querini Stampalia Garden, Venice.

Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) changed his mind.

When in 1959, Giuseppe Mazzariol, Director of the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice, asked him to renovate part of the headquarter of the Foundation and its small and neglected garden, the architect created a raised lawn with rills, sculptures and few trees instead of the paved court with labyrinth and central pool that he had designed for it ten years before.

The original design was, in fact, dated 1949 and was part of the project to restore the antique palace with its art collections and precious library, legacy of the generous Count Giovanni Querini to the Venetians in 1869. The garden had never enjoyed much favour. The Count himself considered it a nuisance, a useless expense and a waste of time. Along the years, it had become a sort of outdoor deposit, after being used as vegetable garden. Financial problems delayed the beginning of the works that started just in 1959 and were completed with the inauguration in 1963.

Scarpa's approach returned the garden its dignity and a well defined role for the Foundation. He did not try to conceal its small size, rectangular shape, and incumbent boundary walls but exploited these aspects creating different volumes and walks. Shapes are clean and linear, simple parallelepipeds that form steps, planters, little canals and pools. He used concrete, marble and glass. The thin wall that separates one side of the garden from the cafe is made of concrete. Its monotonous and rough surface is broken by openings and brightened by a mosaic created by Mario De Luigi with Murano glass tiles, shaded from gold to grey and black. Elsewhere, this ribbon of glass becomes a stone path or a short channel fed by an alabaster sculpture. The water flows along the channel, beyond a small stone lion, into a small spiral pool and disappears in a ‘vera da pozzo’, the ancient wellhead. Water is enclosed in a square copper pool, surrounded by a larger concrete one decorated with a glass tile mosaic.

The use of these materials creates continuity with the ground floor rooms of which the garden becomes an extension: just a glass wall and four columns divide them. The lawn is reflected in the glass and through it you can see the canal on the other side of the palace. Water enters it. Scarpa solved the problem of the 'aqua alta' allowing the water to enter the ground floor from the nearby canal but following a set course, using water to light up and mirror patterns and surfaces. Effects that continue in the garden amplified by the changing natural light and the vegetation. A papyrus, a pomegranate and some flowering trees bring the seasons in the garden. Giuseppe Mazzariol added flowers and mediterranean plants but more recent restorations had simplified the plantations.

The garden is an essential and elegant space intended for rest and reading. When Scarpa eventually began the works, he was ten years older and more experienced, able to create a perfect harmony between nature and human intervention.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Venice, December 2014.

Link:
Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Castello 5252 - 30122 Venezia
http://www.querinistampalia.org/

Further reading:
Carlo Scarpa alla Querini Stampalia, text by Maura Manzelle, Venezia, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, 2012 (2003).

The Art of Chabana: September.

Material: Liriope muscari 'Variegata', Anemone japonica, bamboo.

Container: Raku ceramic vase.

There are still drops of rain on the leaves I chose for chabana today.
There was a thunder storm yesterday evening and gentle rain this morning.
Days are shorter and cooler.

Someone reminded me that chabana is vitality, simplicity and hospitality. Seasonal flowers and leaves bring the surrounding landscape and rural life into the room. Air streams through few stems arranged in a simple, symmetrical composition.  

I start again from here.

Photos:

TravelinaGarden, September 2016.

Further reading:

Henry Mittwer, The Art of Chabana: Flowers for the Tea Ceremony, Charles E. Tuttle Company Inc., Tokyo, 1974.

Link to the previous posts:

The Art of Chabana: April

The Art of Chabana: May

The Art of Chabana: June
The Art of Chabana: July

To answer your questions....Cilia Prenen and Tuin Johannapark, Amsterdam.

From the back door of the house few steps and a brick path lead into a garden in full spring flowering: roses of different colour, size and habit, round pink bushes of spiraeas and the first lacecap hydrangeas. And densely planted among them, there are all those flowers that make the glory of spring, Alchemilla mollis, Geraniums, Astrantias, Tradescantias, campanulas, interspersed with clumps of blue Hostas, soft ferns and chocolate Heucheras. Lost in these colours and scents, I listen to Cilia Prenen, Amsterdam based garden designer 'with dirty fingers', retrace the history of this garden in a sunny morning of June.

She lives here with her family, in the first of the five three-storey houses lined up in  Johannapark street in Amsterdam. Their community garden began in 1981, combining the back gardens with a neglected area of the nearby Vondelpark.
Tuin Johannapark, 'tuin' is garden in Dutch, was created little by little. At the beginning, there were above all vegetables, useful, cheap and easy to cultivate, and the design evolved following the needs of the families. She recalls paths wide enough for prams to pass and spaces for the children to play that today are sheltered areas where relax and enjoy the great outdoors. Boxwood clipped in geometric shapes and low hedges create a permanent structure where secluded areas with little tables, chairs and benches are placed among exuberant plantings. Several fruit trees, including a promising fig against a wall, are scattered in the lawn. Its soft, attractive surface gives a sense of unity and freshness to this urban garden bounded by houses and walls. Old trees and hedges partially screen them. The presence of these old trees is even more remarkable considering that this is a waterlogged area, reclaimed from the sea and requiring continuos drainage. 
Vegetables are still there. Rows of salad, peas and herbs thrive in ordered beds in the sunny central area of the garden. 
Just a few steps from the house. 















The visit to her garden was an unexpected gift. Thank you for  sharing with us this beautiful garden and your passion and experience!

TravelinaGarden: Tuin Johannapark was originally part of the nearby Vondelpark. It was a working area dedicated to glasshouses and nursery, not open to the public. In 1981, the families living in the houses overlooking this area started to dismantle the unused and abandoned structures and to reclaim and cultivate the plot. Which was your idea for the garden at that time? Which were the main problems? 
Cilia Prenen: I didn’t have a structural idea at the moment. Just a dream of an area with flowers, vegetables, fruit and herbs. A dream of a shared garden, I liked that idea. The garden more or less evolved along that line. The main problem was money! As we didn’t know whether we could keep the garden we didn’t want to invest in materials. And we were 35 years younger and poorer... That’s why we started with vegetables, as you only need to invest in packets of seed in that case.

TravelinaGarden: The garden in June is full of colours, shapes and scents. How will the garden evolve in the next months?
Cilia Prenen: Colours, shapes and scents (very important!) will be with us for the whole season. In July and August different varieties of Phloxes will form huge blocks of colours. With clever pruning they will last right into autumn. The biggest change is in the vegetable garden, as that will grow into exuberance (pole beans, zucchini, chards in rainbow colours etc).

TravelinaGarden:Your garden is for you a place to be enjoyed but also where to experiment new plants. Which are your latest discoveries? 
Cilia Prenen: I’m searching for drought-resistant plant lately, as even our wet climate is changing with dryer summers. Deep rooting plant are helpful, like Aruncus ‘Horatio’ and the Amsonias. They look good before, during and after flowering, with interesting leaves. Of vital importance! My latest discovery fits in that category as well: Pachyphragma macrophylla. A humble early spring flowerer, white flowers like Cardamine, beginning low to the ground but stretching in their flowering period. Rounded, evergreen (!) leaves. Seeds mildly, and seedlings are always welcome of such a good plant. Stands shade from overhanging trees. Forget about boring Pachysandra, try Pachyphragma instead!

TravelinaGarden:What are your plans for the garden in the near future?
Cilia Prenen: The garden should be more restful to the eye, I sometimes think. So I think of making it greener, less flowery in some parts of it. The middle of the garden will always be abundant, as the other gardeners want that (and me too).

TravelinaGarden: You often work in a urban environment. Which advice would you give to those with a garden or a terrace in the city?
Cilia Prenen: I think it is important that a garden, however tiny, should bring happiness. So plan your garden according to the time you want to garden. Do not make it too complicated, that only brings stress and guilty feelings. The best solution if you are a busy person: plant one tree, if possible. Please. Big or small. It makes all the difference. It connects heaven and earth. Gives you the most beautiful light: sunlight shimmering through leaves. You can sit under it and do nothing. Just be happy.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Amsterdam, June 2016.


Link:
Cilia Prenen Tuinadvies en Ontwerp
Johannapark 1
1054 KB Amsterdam
http://ciliaprenen.nl