The Olivetti Venice Shop

THE OLIVETTI VENICE SHOP

The Olivetti Venice Shop is a small two storey building located in Piazza San Marco, the work of architect Carlo Scarpa. After having lost its original function for years, on April 20, 2011, the shop was reopened after careful philological restoration, which has returned its original colors, furnishings and original Olivetti collection. The General Assurances, which retain their property, have entrusted it to the Italian Environment Fund, which after restoring the restoration, takes care of its maintenance and ensures its enjoyment to the public.

The store consists of a volumetrically combined space with almost completely loose floor, which includes the small entrance hall next to the square, the exhibition space and a discreet hall leading to a rectangular room from which access to the services , with which the ground floor ends. In this large hall, to delimit the corridor, a staircase is formed, shaped with lateral scattering, through which it reaches the first floor, large half of the lower one. Always in this room, between the entrance and the feet of the staircase, there is an elegant ornamental fountain, whose nozzle consists of a white and copper interior marble slab with the Olivetti logo, which pours a slight water flow into a rectangular tub of black marble, perfectly smooth. On this tub, a beautiful sculpture by Alberto Viani is implanted. All environments are paved with a nice Murano and Murano glass play: a series of quadrangular tiles, very similar in shape but different, of area in the area, by color, are intertwined with white and smooth stone trim, with a very pleasant gloss effect on the entire surface.

The colors chosen by Scarpa are red, yellow and blue, that is, the primary colors plus the white. The wide use of continuous stained glass along the perimeter of the ground floor contributes to an osmosis between the interior and exterior of the premises. This trend is also underlined by the position of the entrance compartment, organized with a low threshold of smooth marble which, from the trachy floor of the square, rises slightly and enters, through a door preceded by a bellows sliding gate, into the first large room. Outside, the window frames are in teak and white marble, with hinged internal shelves and wall lamps for product lighting. Underneath the entire outer wall of the shop runs a concrete slab mixed with pebbles, perfectly contrasting with the smoothness of the teak and glass and camouflaged with the ancient pavement of the sidewalk of the subaraches. On the side wall, behind a large Olivetti logo, there is a small electric cabin, which can be opened for maintenance.

source wikipedia