Stefano Zaggia   stefano.zaggia@unipd.it
Gianmario Guidarelli    gianmario.guidarelli@unipd.it

Research areas:

• Squares and public buildings between the 15th and 18th centuries.
  The line of research is focused to study the evolution and realization of monumental public places and the organization of collective spaces, from the early Renaissance to contemporary age.
• History and visualization of urban and landscapes transformations.
  The line of research deals with the study of the ways to communicate, through the most recent digital media, the evolution of urban contexts and the complex stratification of historical cities and landscapes.
• History of the ‘long lasting’ Renaissance Architecture
  The research line deals with a consolidated historiographical tradition that study the Italian Renaissance Architecture in cultural ‘long lasting’ context, with particular reference to the Veneto.

Projects:

• The architecture of Knowledge: buildings and university campus (XVI-XX centuries)
  The research deals with the study of the historical evolution of architecture for the University. In the modern and contemporary age, buildings for university functions became an important testing ground for architecture. In Italy, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, an important part of the ideological debate and formal experimentation developed from the problems of university buildings. In particular the research addresses these issues focusing the analysis on the case-study of University of Padua.
• Giovan Maria Falconetto and the Architecture in Renaissance Veneto.
  Vasari, in his life dedicated to artists of Verona, underlined the role played by Giovan Maria Falconetto (1468-1535) at the beginning of 16th century, as first innovator of Venetian Renaissance architecture. The pictorial training and the deep knowledge of the antiquarian repertoire, not only of the Veneto area but also of Rome and Istria, were the main basis on which Falconetto elaborated his own architectural language. The research deals with the critical revision of the architectural works of Falconetto starting from a systematic recognition of the built works, and not only the most famous, placing them in their historical and historiographical context.
• The Architectural culture of the Reformed Benedictines and the Renaissance (1408-1564)
  The cultural impact of the Benedictines in the Medieval Europe (with their cultural model based on a network of monasteries) is vast and already well known; we want to verify the relevance of these monasteries also in the European Renaissance, starting from their architectural patronage. In particular, we propose to investigate the monasteries belonging to the Reformed “Congregation of S. Giustina” (then “Benedictine Cassinese”), from the foundation by Ludovico Barbo (1408) to the Council of Trent (1564). We want to understand, with the support of a database of documents and some 3D interactive models: the architectural choices and the ways of intervention of the presidents, the abbots and the masters of the Congregation; the development of distinguishing models for Cassinese churches and monasteries; the interactions between Cassinese architecture and European Renaissance.

Keywords: Cultural Heritage, History of Architecture, Urban Studies, History of Landscape, Digital Humanities