World of Interiors June 2001

The Postwar Palazzo

Helen Miller

I have a confession to make. Having been a devotee of naked windows, I've changed my mind. I like net curtains. The cause of this sea change? A Forties house in Venice. A few steps from the Grand Canal, tucked between two churches, stands a brick building you'd hardly notice - probably because of its neighbour, the 17th-century church of Santa Maria della Salute. The morning I visit, a soft fog descends. Standing on the steps of the Salute, I squint at the house for clues as to what is inside, but its milky nylon curtains are firmly drawn. Behind them lies an extraordinary interior.

In 1940, a wealthy Venetian marine engineer commissioned the architect Marino Meo (1910-1983) to design his family home. At the time, Meo, also a Venetian, was working on a prestigious project across the canal - the renovation and extension of the luxury Hotel Bauer Grunwald. Building a house in Venice posed one obvious problem - location. Prime building land must have been pretty scarce out here in the lagoon. However, a site was found, the old store sheds on it were demolished, and construction began. The two-storey, L-shaped exterior went up, but before the interior was started, war broke out. Work on the house stopped. It was finally completed in 1946, by which time Italy had changed from a kingdom to a republic. Thus, the house was conceived in one era, born into another, and is a remarkable mixture of traditional and modern ideologies...

You can read the whole article in World of Interiors, June 2001.

Not every building in Venice is crumbling and centuries old. A secluded 1946 house designed by the architect Marino Meo brings an unexpected spirit of modernity to La Serenissima.