[Architecture] Florence, Italy Edition

When I was around twenty years old.
It was during the summer vacation of my university days, about 20 years ago.
I traveled to Italy with money I had saved from part-time jobs.

The first place I headed to was 'Florence'.
It is the setting of the movie 'Calmi Cuori Appassionati' (Between Calm and Passion), starring Yutaka Takenouchi and Kelly Chen.

The entire city is a world that seems as if time stopped during the Renaissance.
I still cannot forget the orange cityscape viewed from the Duomo of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

Construction of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore began in 1296. In fact, this cathedral construction started without a complete plan. Although there were blueprints for a massive structure from the beginning, construction began without deciding how to build the roof. It is said that by the late 1300s, everything except the roof was nearly complete. So, wondering what to do about the roof, a competition for roof construction proposals was held in 1418. The person chosen at this time wasFilippo Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi was not an architect who had received formal architectural training. However, fascinated by ancient Roman architectural techniques, he developed the construction method for building this dome, which is about 45 meters in diameter, through self-study. It is said that the construction lasted for 16 years.
And in 1436, the dome was finally completed.
The cathedral, which took over 100 years to build, continues to shine in the center of Florence even now, nearly 600 years later.

The Duomo of the cathedral viewed from the small alleys in the city was beautiful.

The'Ponte Vecchio'built over the Arno River was also beautiful.
It was a mysterious world where the bridge itself felt like an alleyway.

Florence has maintained a cityscape that has remained unchanged since the era when the Renaissance reached its peak from the Gothic period. Twenty years ago, when I visited, modernism did not exist in this city.
While it is wonderful as a tourist destination, there must be inconveniences and discomforts in actual daily life. Maintaining this cityscape is no small feat. However, the people of this city take pride in their city and enjoy life here more than anything else.
In Japan, ancient capitals like Kyoto still remain. You can hardly see any modern architecture in the cityscape of Florence. The thoroughness of that is incomparable to Kyoto.
In Kyoto, there are legal regulations on height, roof shape, and the colors of various parts when building new structures to preserve the historical cityscape. However, even with those regulations, because the spirit behind them does not keep up, 'pseudo-traditional' architecture is being built. At first glance, it looks like a unified cityscape, but if you look closely, a lack of unity appears. Compared to that, Florence has an orientation that is the exact opposite of Japan, which has repeatedly engaged in scrap-and-build. People's pride supports the city's landscape more than laws do. While I have a desire for this cityscape to be maintained forever, the question is how long the people living there can sustain it. Nevertheless, Florence was a place packed with things that Japanese people should learn about architecture and cities.

See you again.