The Rural Landscape of the Palladian Villa
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Scale Dissonances between Local and World Heritage The Rural Landscape of the Palladian Villa A thesis approved by the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the academic degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Heritage Studies by Valentina Torelli, M.Arch from Rovereto, Italy First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Michael Schmidt Second Supervisor: Prof. M.Arch. Francesca Leder Day of the oral examination: 19.04.2021 Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank Franco, Leonardo and Barbara who encouraged me to start this PhD research. I am grateful to my supervisors, Prof. Schmidt and Prof. Amelina for supporting me in the articulation and development of my argument. I want to thank all the people I have met on the site and Prof. Francesca Leder for supporting me in the field work with her knowledge about this territory. I say thank you to Sara Tassi, Giulia Zanforlin, Virginia Rush and to the teaching staff of the PhD Program in Heritage Studies and the Chair of Environmental Planning for helping me through the research path with critiques, suggestions and reflections. Last but not the least I say thank you to my partner, Max. Berlin, July 2020. Abstract This research critically analyses the visual representation of the Palladian villa landscape as UNESCO World Heritage. I bring to light certain dissonances around the understanding of this landscape as heritage between global and local perspective. I have explored the ways in which the rural landscape of the Palladian villas is produced by ICOMOS experts, local institution and inhabitants in the contemporary context of the suburban areas of the Veneto region in Italy. Dissonances are arising when the landscape transforms and the visual integrity, or the iconic image of the landscape get lost. I observed that, the loss of the visual integrity, considered as negative by ICOMOS experts, gives space to peculiar heritage social practices from below. I am problematizing two main aspects of the conservation scheme of this site: the selective visual representation of history and the musealization of agriculture for touristic proposes. I am exploring the potential of reframing and renaming the conservation scheme of the World Heritage Site. I suggest using inhabitant’s visual representation to reframe the UNESCO management plan and considering the peculiar local agricultural practice as a “continuing cultural landscape”. I interpret my empirical and theoretical contribution as a semantic shift in the way the Palladian rural landscape is understood as World Heritage toward an inclusive and situated heritage conservation that extend beyond expert’s conservation philosophies. The research contributes to the deconstruction of modern notions of rural landscape and heritage in the field of heritage studies and landscape conservation especially within the implementation of the World Heritage Convention. keywords: rural landscape, scale dissonances, World Heritage Convention, visual integrity, cultural tourism, agricultural practice Zusammenfassung Diese Forschungsarbeit analysiert kritisch die visuelle Darstellung der Palladianischen Villen-Landschaft als UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe. Ich bringe gewisse Dissonanzen bezüglich des Verständnisses dieser Landschaft als Erbe zwischen globaler und lokaler Perspektive ans Licht. Ich habe untersucht die Art und Weise, wie die Palladianische Villen- Landschaft von ICOMOS-Experten, lokalen Institutionen und Einwohnern im zeitgenössischen Kontext der Region Venetien in Italien erzeugt wird. Dissonanzen entstehen, wenn sich die Landschaft verändert und die visuelle Integrität oder das „ikonische Bild“ der Landschaft verloren geht. Dabei stellte ich fest, dass der Verlust der visuellen Integrität, der von ICOMOS-Experten als negativ eingestuft wird, Raum für besondere soziale Praktiken des lokalen Erbes bietet. Ich problematisiere zwei Hauptaspekte des Managementplans dieses Weltkulturerbes: die selektive visuelle Darstellung der Geschichte und die Musealisierung der Landwirtschaft für touristische Nutzung. Schlussfolgernd empfehle ich eine Neuformulierung und Umbenennung des Schutzschemas des Weltkulturerbes und schlage vor, die visuelle Darstellung der Bewohner im UNESCO-Managementplan zu verwenden und die besondere lokale landwirtschaftliche Praxis als „continuing cultural landscape“ zu berücksichtigen. Ich interpretiere meinen empirischen und theoretischen Beitrag als eine semantische Verschiebung in der Art und Weise, wie die Palladianische Villen-Landschaft als Welterbe verstanden wird, hin zu einer integrativen Erhaltung des kulturellen Erbes im sozio-historischen Kontext die über die Conservation Philosophies von Experten hinausgeht. Die Forschung trägt zur Dekonstruktion moderner Vorstellungen von Landschaft und Kulturerbe im Bereich Heritage Studies und des Landschaftsschutzes, insbesondere im Rahmen der Umsetzung der Welterbekonvention, bei. Keywords: Landschaft, Maßstabsdissonanzen, Welterbekonvention, visuelle Integrität, Kulturtourismus, landwirtschaftliche Praxis Table of Content List of figures .................................................................................................... IV List of tables .................................................................................................... VII List of abbreviations ......................................................................................... VII 1. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research interest ......................................................................................... 2 1.2 Research question and aims ........................................................................ 5 1.3 Expected contributions to the field of studies ............................................... 5 1.4 Structure of the work .................................................................................... 7 2. The rural landscape of the Palladian Villa as heritage ............. 10 2.1 The Veneto Region ..................................................................................... 10 2.2 The World Heritage Site of the “City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto” ....................................................................................................... 12 2.3 The Italian villa in the Renaissance ............................................................ 17 2.4 The agrarian landscape of the Palladian Villa ............................................ 22 2.4.1 The Palladian Villa as a Farm ........................................................................ 22 2.4.2 The agrarian landscape seen from the villa .................................................... 31 2.5 Transformations of the landscape of the Palladian villa .............................. 39 2.5.1 Mechanization of the agrarian landscape and rural exodus in the 1950s ........ 39 2.5.2 Small scale industrialization in the 1970s ....................................................... 41 2.6 The rural landscape and its visual representation ...................................... 46 3. A theory of the production of rural heritage landscapes ......... 54 3.1 Heritage studies and sociological research ................................................ 54 3.2 Heritage scale as a concept: World and local scale ................................... 62 3.3 Theoretical position .................................................................................... 67 I 3.4 The production of the (rural) space ............................................................. 70 3.5 Dissonance and harmony ........................................................................... 73 3.5.1 Visual representation and visual integrity ....................................................... 76 3.5.2 Materiality of physical attributes ..................................................................... 82 3.5.3 Heritage experience ....................................................................................... 83 4. Methodology: Sampling the local scale .................................... 85 4.1 Sub-urbanization and the loss of visual integrity ........................................ 85 4.2 Framing the research questions ................................................................. 94 4.2.1 Ethnographic field work .................................................................................. 97 4.2.2 Visual and Content analysis ......................................................................... 103 4.2.3 Selective coding ........................................................................................... 104 5. The harmonic landscape of Villa Saraceno ............................. 105 5.1 The Outstanding Universal Value ............................................................. 107 5.2 The Landmark Trust’s visual representation and attributes ...................... 113 5.3 Agriculture as a touristic experience produced by the experts ................. 118 6. The dissonant landscape of Villa Caldogno ........................... 124 6.1 Agriculture as the inhabitants’ heritage experience .................................. 129 6.2 Inhabitants’ values, attributes and visual representation .......................... 138 6.3 A contradictory rural middle class ............................................................. 144 7. Visual representation and