Le strutture dell'Arsenale di Venezia. Studi e Restauri

The Venice Arsenal, with its 48 acres of extension and a history that goes back more than 800 years, is an extraordinary subject of study of constructive techniques and of experimentation in the development of restoration methods.The wooden covering systems in particular are the most precious example we have of almost 700 years of building technology, that was strictly linked to and influenced by the development of the naval shipbuilding industry. Since 1983 the Venice Superintendency has been working and investing many resources on a program of study of the Arsenal, concentrating above all on the roof’s structures. An important occasion of testing the results of our study has been given by the restoration works on the wooden structures of the “tesa” of the Isolotto, built in the 14th century. These are the oldest structures of the whole building, and still maintain the original constructive characteristics. The text is a brief summary of the restoration works carried out on the trusses of the Isolotto and of the relative study to develop a model in the preservation, diagnostics and individuation of the wooden structures. The text also illustrates the level of knowledge of the constructive characteristics of the trusses of the whole building, the dendrochronologic studies carried out in the last 20 years and the first results of a research aimed at understanding the static-structural behaviour of the covering system.