The original purpose of this room, before either of Scarpa’s renovations, was as a commerce museum for the Faculty of Economics. The original windows were made of a thicker glass that had many thick supports between each one. It did not provide a clear view of the bend in the Grand Canal that we see today, or the backs of the columns.
In his restoration, Scarpa created windows with gothic-esque peaks that appear to be a wall of glass. Because of these big windows, light floods into Aula Barrato. Light becomes like another one of Scarpa’s building materials.
Though he radically changed the traditional windows, Scarpa’s design was not simply focused on reinventing the space. The new windows still honor the buildings’ history. With the full view of the largest bend in the Grand Canal (and an amazing view of the Regatta Storica) visitors look out over the “volta de canal” in the heart of Venice. This reminds them of the deep history of the place they are in.
Framing this grand view are the backs of the columns. With the original windows, the craftsmanship of these historic columns could only be seen from the canal. When Scarpa expanded the windows, he allowed visitors to see the columns from inside the room. The visitor today can see the craftsmanship that goes all the way around the columns, where before only the fronts were visible from the grand canal.
Scarpa redesigned the windows so that now these stately columns frame a historic view, and bring the memory of the traditional into Scarpa’s modern designs.