CORBELLINI
carvings inspired by climbers,
loggers or animals, preceded
by similar subjects reproduced
serially in metal or concrete.
A series of false layers, yet
reversible, accompanied by
more definitive interventions
on architecture, which
started in the eighties
and radically transformed
the village’s image and
substance. Scrolling through
old photos and postcards,
and comparing them to the
current situation, it is easy
to see how the film of the
architectural evolution of
Sappada underwent a sudden
acceleration and a substantial
deviation just thirty years
ago. Of course, the impact
of mass tourism tended to
introduce some decorative
habit also before this period,
but they were still basically
honest design procedures
with discernible constructive
logics and aesthetic goals:
the ornament is fairly applied,
abstract, if it mimics the
structural functions it does
so in a quite plausible way
and, in general, it shows
some specific reasons, such
as the identification of
masses, their visual reduction
or magnification, the
connection of surfaces, the
management of proportions...
Practices that, at a certain
moment, are quickly replaced
by diametrically opposite
strategies.
10 paesaggio urbano 3.2013
A first phenomenon, common
to other mountain venues, is
the superficial imitation of
traditional techniques, but
devoid of any constructive,
material and functional logic
and reproduced for decorative
purposes only. Buildings made
of concrete, masonry or,
more recently, prefabricated
wood panels are cladded
poorly cloning the blockbau:
the “logs”, for instance,
don’t correspond to their
supposed heads which emerge
beyond the angular joints,
revealing that they are made
of thin boards coating the
insulation layers. In addition,
the antiqued finish doesn’t
match the black Carbolineum
used to protect the wood of
the original houses. Similar
ill-formed outcomes concern
the imitations of stone
bases (abnormal thicknesses,
unlikely transitions with the
soil, use of fake stones ...),
the cantilevered balconies
(the wooden beams which
should support them are
actually hung below the
concrete or X-Lam slabs) and
the relationships between
parts in general, which have
lost any connection with
the tectonic organizations
taken as example. The result
is a widespread practice
of disguise (4) which finds
a cultural equivalent in
the most promoted, and
successful among the tourists,
event of Sappada’s tradition:
the famous Carnival. That
might sound even appropriate
in a vacation resort, precisely
because it offers visitors a
condition of suspension from
their daily lives. But the fact
that this constant masquerade
comes from the intention
to respect traditions and
existing structures, reinforced
moreover by legal constraints
of landscape protection,
makes this outcome less
understandable.
Another, more unusual
manifestation of this trend
is the import in Sappada of
techniques, styles, details and
different solutions coming
from the Bavarian Alps’
architecture: a paradoxical
consequence of the climate
of identity revival arisen
between the seventies and the
eighties (5). The reasons why,
among the many possible
origins of the local community
(the evangelization and
Germanization of Slovenian
peoples or the legendary
migration from Austrian
Villgraten (6)), was the most
distant area of linguistic
similarity chosen remains
rather obscure, as well as
it is incomprehensible the
logic according to which a
community would restate its
roots overlapping decorative
layers taken from a branch
supposedly belonging to the
same trunk but evolved on
its own in an independent
direction: as if today Paduans
imitate the current Turkish
architecture to remember
Antenor, Trojan hero and
mythical founder of the
city ... Anyway, suddenly
the color palette welcomed
new pastel shades and ever
seen graffito finishes with
intricate swirls started to
appear, usually around doors
and windows, together with
religious, heraldic or symbolic
inscriptions, family and trade
insignia, rampant arches
without a static function
and thickly ornamented,
imitations of timber framing
structures, spiral columns, bay
windows and strange little
bell towers-wind vanes on
top of roofs ... A decorative
wave which overwhelmed
both new constructions and
renovations, accommodation
structures as well as the
homes of residents, touching
also some of the old log
houses. In order to definitively
establish its unexpected
collective recognition and to
reaffirm a binding function of
direction, the Neo-Bavarian
style ended up covering the
town hall.
Applied separately or
combined together, these
design methods invested also
more than decent examples
of Alpine Modernism, whose
articulation of volumes
and overall proportions
remain irreducible to the
vernacular crust that now
wraps them. Even the “Casa
ai Monti”, a big hotel of the
sixties (7), has been awfully
reduced to that “local
typology” my architect eyes
were not able to recognize.
Although this formula is
inherently contradictory,
especially when referring
to the type (which would
mean some evolutionary
link with pre-existing stuff)
and in connection with this
specific place (betrayed by
the translation of another
tradition), it photographs,
as we have seen, a
phenomenology with precise
modes of action which has
quickly reached a critical
mass. The immediate and
general sharing of picturesque
counterfeiting by actors and
users of the environmental
transformation and the
parallel marginalization of
the disciplinary gaze show
uncanny similarities with
the historicist masks of Las
Vegas’ casinos. Unfortunately,
unlike Caesar’s Palace, of
which everything can be
said except it aspires to
some authenticity, the
claim of continuity is
mercilessly unmasked by
close comparisons with
the originals (8). Therefore
it is difficult to act as the
Venturis and make Sappada
an experimental lab of