TRADITIONAL VENETIAN MARMORINO COURSE
   Design is about providing clear solutions to specific problems. You will find yourself having to deal with functional and aesthetic issues, while remaining within set budgets and regulations.
All these considerations are and have always been interdependent. Technical solutions presuppose a knowledge of materials and their uses, historically and for different construction purposes.
Some techniques, like traditional marmorino, were very popular in the past and have survived for centuries because they can offer in their different forms optimal solutions for diverse weather and environmental conditions.
But in most instances, they have not survived the industrialization of production processes, as they are impossible to mass produce.
During the twentieth century, events such as the increase in population and post-war reconstruction precluded those techniques which could not comply to the demands of standardised construction.
Today we build less and better, and with the rise of eco friendly architecture, which reasserts quality of life as central element in planning, thinking about quality of materials becomes relevant again. In addition, in the last few decades, a new sensibility towards the conservation of architectural heritage has lead to an attempt to rediscover traditional techniques, the knowledge of which is essential for its restoration. As far as marmorino is concerned, in Venice we owe the survival of such art to the efforts in promoting and preserving trade secrets carried out in the last thirty years by Mario and Franco Fogliata.
The new global economy, which sees the move of manufacturing processes to countries with lower productions costs, highlights the need for Italy to rediscover its vocation for artistic beauty and artesanal quality (even in construction) in order to create a niche within international markets, offering goods, skills and know-how unavailable elsewhere.

Our Team Habitanova Restauri ( habitanova@libero.it )
1° PREMIO RESTRUCTUM TORINO 2010 (la calce nelle finiture e nel restauro)

The building site.

In new builds there is a need for plans to take into consideration surroundings, landscape, light orientation, urban areas, etc. In conservation projects, once historical structural and chemical analyses are carried, adjustments to the new purpose of a building must be implemented. When the initial stages of site visit and structural and material surveys are completed, a normal person may well want to sit with one's head in one's hands and start to cry. Instead, we have to roll up our sleeves and start work outdoors.
On a restoration site, planning regulations strongly affect the work, but a sympathetically restored building, both in Italy and abroad, adds value and its restoration is no less stimulating and gratifying than a new build. I have often witnessed the loss of significant architecture because of the inability of developers to place original buildings in a new context, when all costs are equal. Choosing to include in a design traditional materials and techniques may initially appear too expensive for the average budget. But it does not have to be that way. Some techniques like marmorino offer a guarantee of longevity (even under the difficult environmental conditions in Venice) that can make them more attractive.


Technical qualities of traditional marmorino

Resilient
Longevity
Breathable
Impermeable
Light reflectant
Available in a range of colours
Weathers well
Available in a variety of finishes and preparations

Interpreting service available if required
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