Part of Napoleon's 1806 reform of the Marciano area, the Giardini Reali in Venice have been one of the city's green lungs since 1920 when they opened to the public. After a long period of semi-abandon followed by a complex five-year restoration project (2015-2019), they are once more a key location in the lagoon city and spread over 5,000 sq. m. Surrounded by canals lined with the Museo Correr, Sale Imperiali of Palazzo Reale, Museo Archeologico and the Biblioteca Marciano, they boast a "legendary" drawbridge linking them directly to St Mark's Square. The refurbishment was "steered" by the Venice Gardens Foundation and two architects: Paolo Pejrone supervised the botanical restoration (introducing 22 tall-trunk trees, 832 shrubs, 6,560 herbaceous plants, 3,150 bulbous plants and 68 climbers); and Alberto Torsello was in charge of the architectural work. As well as removing ancillary and incongruous constructions - including a reinforced-concrete bunker dating from WWII - the project envisaged the reconstruction of two glasshouses (the Serre): a larger one (featuring a round central pavilion and two orthogonal structures linked to Lorenzo Santi's neoclassical Padiglione); and a smaller one (housing books on nature, gardens and landscape) to a design by Carlo Aymonino and Gabriella Barbini. OS2 75 windows by Secco Sistemi, all glass and painted galvanised steel, were chosen for nearly all the Serre area (450 m2 in the larger one) and the profiles -fixed directly to load-bearing elements paired and laser designed/cut - offer high performance in terms of thermal and acoustic insulation, and a simple aesthetic with minimal thicknesses.
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