DORA NEIGHBORHOOD

QUARTIERE DORA

Via Tagliamento, Via Clitumno, Via Serchio, Via Ombrone e Via Arno

1919/27 Gino Coppedè (1866/1927)

Known popularly as QUARTIERE COPPEDÈ (Coppedè Neighborhood) after its architect

Commissioned in 1913 by the tycoons Cerruti and Becchi of the Società Anonima Edilizia Moderna (Modern Construction Limited Company)

Architectural and visionary pastiche of 31,000 m² (7.7 acres) comprising 18 large buildings and 27 smaller ones built around the central Piazza Mincio

Coppedè directed the works until his death in 1927, with an interruption due to the First World War. The main part of the district, however, was completed in 1921

After Coppedè's death the job was completed and directed by his son Paolo Emilio André

The Florentine architect, in his eclecticism, mixed different styles: contemporary art deco and art nouveau as well as elements with variations of Baroque, Gothic, Moorish and Mannerism, combined with references ranging from the Middle Ages to Ancient Greece

A lot of travertine stone was used in tribute to the Roman tradition and for the interiors majolica was used for kitchens, wood flooring for living rooms and Pompeian mosaics for bathrooms

“The whole thing seems focused to a taste for the wondrous, the need for luxury required by the clients specifying an instance of the upper-class society for which this architecture, even in the mid-twenties, was the ultimate sophistication” (Mauro Cozzi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani)

Among the buildings:

PALAZZINA DEL RAGNO (Small Palace of the Spider)

PALAZZI DEGLI AMBASCIATORI (Palaces of Ambassadors)

PALAZZO IN PIAZZA MINCIO (Palace in Piazza Mincio)

VILLINO DELLE FATE (Cottage of the Fairies)

In Piazza Mincio there is the FONTANA DELLE RANE (Fountain of the Frogs) 1920/24

In Via Tagliamento 9, adjacent to the district, there is the PIPER CLUB, historic concert venue and nightclub opened in 1965

It was originally decorated with works of art, including two paintings by Andy Warhol (1928/87), some of Mario Schifano (1934/98) and works by Piero Manzoni (1933/63)

Real giants of the music of the second half of the twentieth century played here live, such as The Who, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Genesis, David Bowie, Sly and the Family Stone, Lucio Battisti, Duke Ellington, and more recently, Nirvana

PALACE ON VIA VENETO 7

PALAZZO AL N°7 DI VIA VENETO

Via Vittorio Veneto 7

1925/27 Gino Coppedè (1866/1927) for the Società Anonima Edilizia Moderna (Modern Anonymous Construction Company)

It was the last work of this imaginative architect before his death

“The sign of changing times is felt, after a certain date, even in Coppedè's work: the building built in Rome on Via Veneto (...) even though it doesn't betray Coppedè's style, it appears set to a greater sobriety, mitigating in a more classical composure the decorative exuberance of the palaces of Piazza Quadrata. In this case Coppedè appeared to have taken into account some criticism from many quarters that were addressed to his work, to a conception of architecture, to a school - of which Coppedè appeared as an exemplary exponent - which was now to be finally overcome by the times” (Mauro Cozzi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)