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r Dr Revedin, you live in Venice. It was 100 years ago of just “taking a trip”? If Venice were to become once
when Margherita Revedin sustainably changed the la- again the place of the “good visitors”, if it would be dis-
goon city. Explain to our readers which was the ball covered by open-minded people and permanently inha-
that Margherita got rolling? bited, the city would be saved. The population of 50,000
With her unbiased view and her wise modesty, my hus- is over-optimistic. Only half of them are really locals. MÖBEL
band´s grandmother, who came from a humble back-
ground and surprised everyone by marrying into the ari- r You are the founder and the president of the Locus
stocratic Revedin family, invented never before realized Foundation which, under the patronage of UNESCO,
purposes for the impoverished city of Venice of her time. annually gives the Global Award for Sustainable Archi- À LA
After the First World War and the Spanish Flu, the city was tecture you initiated. Which are the most important
almost irrecoverably at the end and the façades of its buil- challenges of the future?
dings were literally crumbling into the canals. Margherita I follow the statement by Walter Gropius of 1919: “Archi-
combined the spa tourism of the turn of the century with tecture is science, craft and art in the service of society”.
The last part of this beautiful definition, the service of so-
the culture tourism of the young Biennale and invented a ciety, is what the architects of my generation like to forget. CARTE.
completely new kind of tourism: actively experiencing na-
ture. She turned the lagoon archipelago and the lido, into
a magnet for tourists: swimming, rowing, clay-pigeon r Keyword Gropius: The second significant woman of
shooting and even golf and sports aviation were made ac- the 1920s/1930s whom you have rediscovered is the se-
cessible to a wide public for the first time. When I met my cond wife of Walter Gropius. She became the emanci-
husband, her grandson, here in Venice 35 years ago, it be- patory soul of the Bauhaus. What can we still learn
came clear to me that, one day, I just had to tell about the from her today?
adventurous life of this today forgotten visionary. Ise Frank has dedicated herself to the “Bauhaus idea”
and contributed her journalistic and literary knowledge
r Which are the parallels you notice between you and and ability to formulate, together with Walter Gropius
Margherita? Your life as well has decisively changed in and his allies, the theory and the ethics of the German re-
the city of Venice … form-architecture movement. The three fundamental in-
On my daily walks through the city, I encounter Marghe- novations which Gropius and Ise Frank also experimen-
rita in numerous places. After her husband had died, she tally exemplified in the everyday life of the Bauhaus
renounced a luxurious life and withdrew to a modern school were, first, the “ecological city”, secondly the in-
apartment building with a view of the Guidecca Canal terdisciplinary Bauhaus teaching and research including
and Palladio´s Redentore Church. Some years ago, my numerous sciences and arts. At the Bauhaus time of Gro-
husband and I managed to buy a small house right next pius at the Bauhaus, not a single architect taught there.
to where she lived: for me, the most beautiful location in Finally, social emancipation through architecture: The
the city. When I landed here after my years of studies in Bauhaus of Gropius was the very first school of architec-
Buenos Aires, New York and Milan, my Milan colleagues ture which allowed women to study! These three innova-
sneered: “Now she´s moving to the village!” I had to fight tions would, however, already be forgotten if Ise Frank
against the local conditions. I was the youngest assistant had not decided in 1927 to move the Bauhaus to the USA
in the Milan office of Aldo Rossi and loved my work. when faced with the Nazi regime.
When my two daughters were born, my reputation as a
bad mother was already predestined. r As an architect, an architecture theorist and a profes-
sor of architecture and urban development, you are
r The lagoon city has about 50,000 inhabitants but is inevitably confronted with gender issues …
overrun by 30 million visitors every year. How are you Each and every day. I encourage my younger female col-
experiencing the city in times of corona and which are leagues and my female students to pursue their own
the chances resulting from this crisis? dreams; I am trying to show them the joy taken in our
The world is finally coming to a stop and refocussing on marvellous profession. When, in 1987, I was accepted by
what is essential. Is it really the many, the uncontrollable Aldo Rossi into his office, there were exclusively men wor-
impressions which evoke creativity? Or is it the quietness king there; on the construction sites, I learned from male
of our souls? Could we learn how to travel again instead technicians and builders and I designed for clients who
were almost all men. Then I said to myself: But architec-
Wiederentdeckt von Jana Revedin: Ise Frank und Margherita Revedin ture is feminine!

r In Flucht nach Patagonien, your latest book which is
going to be published in August, you introduce us to
yet another captivating woman whom you want to
bring out of the shadows of history …
Yes, because the world needs female rebels! February
1937: Eugenia Errázuriz, the most influential patroness of
the Parisian modernity, invites the young Jewish interior
designer Jean-Michel Frank on a journey to Patagonia.
She has invested her entire fortune in the building of the
first grand hotel of the Andes which is to make Jean-Mi-
chel Frank renowned worldwide. LANDSBERG  PARIS  WIEN
GOIN€PROJECT.COM