Delight.AT THE PALAZZO FALIER ON VENICE'S GRAND CANAL Grand Canal, Chinese Da Yunhe [large transit river], longest in the world, extending c.1,000 mi (1,600 km) from Beijing to Hangzhou, E China, and forming an important north-south waterway on the North China Plain. The canal was started in the 6th cent. B.C. , ORIENTAL AND GOTHIC INFLUENCES EVOKE THE CITY'S APPETITE FOR SENSUOUS DISPLAY. This Venetian palazzo would be equally at home as a 'kiosk' on the Bosporus or a merchant's villa on the Yangtze River Yangtze River Chinese Chang Jiang or Ch'ang Chiang River, China. Rising in the Tanggula Mountains in west-central China, it flows southeast before turning northeast and then generally east across south-central and east-central China to the East China . Venice has always inclined to the East, both politically and aesthetically, and this palazzo, like so many others, contributes a subtle Oriental accent to the Venetian vernacular. Touching the edge of the Grand Canal, this liago is a late sixteenth-century addition to the Palazzo Falier. The original elevation was set back from the canal by the depth of a room, a fact that conveniently allowed space for a pair of pagoda-like extensions cradling a garden, adding charm and detail to an otherwise typologically normal Gothic facade from 1355. The top of the liago is a loggia loggia Hall, gallery, or porch open to the air on one or more sides. It evolved in the Mediterranean region as an open sitting room with protection from the sun. It is often a roofed, arcaded open gallery on an upper story overlooking a court, though it can also be a attached to the piano nobile and long since filled in with a delicate glass screen. On the right, the mezzanino opens to a terrace that offers discretionary seclusion seclusion Forensic psychiatry A strategy for managing disturbed and violent Pts in psychiatric units, which consists of supervised confinement of a Pt to a room–ie, involuntary isolation, to protect others from harm : sitting further back from its elbow-height enclosure affords complete privacy, while standing offers a grandstand view of both the canal and the occupant. Venice is a self-conscious city built for display and there are more than 18 000 decorative balconies on the Grand Canal from which to admire Venice--or on which to be admired by people passing in boats. The little iron balcony in the centre of this palazzo's mezzanino hangs over the canal like a birdcage. It seats two and is almost ceremoniously cer·e·mo·ni·ous adj. 1. Strictly observant of or devoted to ceremony, ritual, or etiquette; punctilious: "borne on silvery trays by ceremonious world-weary waiters" Financial Times. public, theatrically and flirtatiously flir·ta·tious adj. 1. Given to flirting. 2. Full of playful allure: a flirtatious glance. flir·ta framed by curtains. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To the left, two windows are set into the thick palazzo wall. Heavy cotton awnings cut out the strong afternoon sun, funnel the breeze and, from the inside, seemingly extend the depth of the room, turning glare into glow. Their sloping surface deflects the view downwards to the canal and the garden. A suitably Oriental screen separates the garden from the jetty jetty: see coast protection. where a boat is normally kept. From the boat, which can go almost anywhere, Venice is seen at its best. This is an architecture at one with its context. Confident in its setting and enjoying conventions, it is both a formal statement about Venice's civic aspirations and a very human response to its particular position and orientation. It is the antithesis of cool, 'single-issue' abstraction. |
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