Gemin wing

In 1992 Luciano Gemin, an architect from Treviso, designed the so-called Gemin Wing, an addition to the original Museum structure, to accommodate lectures and conferences. The new structure exploits the natural elevation of the land to create different levels on the inside. The Ipogea room, on the lowest level, serves as a conference room and is the only section of the enlargement that “leans” over the wing designed by Carlo Scarpa between 1955 and 1957.
Gemin designed a room with openings on the roof so that the sunlight could enter the space from above. Moreover, the lowest floor comprises a complex glass window system that underlines the architect’s intention of connecting what is inside with the outside and allows the visitor to observe the Scarpa Wing. Not only, Luciano Gemin paid further tribute to his fellow architect by designing the terrace floor with black and white pebbles meticulously arranged to replicate the triangle design previously studied by Scarpa. Gemin studied Architecture at the University of Venice, where he had the chance to meet the famous Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978).

The two established a close working relationship, along with a cherished friendship and mutual respect. Luciano Gemin graduated in 1953 with Carlo Scarpa as his thesis supervisor and the following year his professional career began. In 1955 he worked for Edoardo Gellner (1909-2004) in Cortina d’Ampezzo and at the same time he taught Design and Art History.
In 1976 Gemin and Scarpa worked together on a project for the restoration of the Gemona Bank, but the work was concluded by Gemin alone because of the untimely death of the Venetian architect in 1978. Gemin took inspiration from this project to design the wing that takes his name at the Museo Canova in Possagno.
Today, the Gemin Wing hosts all the artworks that need to be restored, such as the Ideal head, Venus coming out of the bath, Reclining Naiad, Hebe, and the Dancer with finger on chin, but also the low reliefs that were previously exhibited inside the Lazzari Wing.

The following year his professional career began, in 1955 he worked for Edoardo Gellner in Cortina d’Ampezzo and at the same time he taught Design and Art History.
He lives and works in Treviso where, since the 1960s, he has been dedicated to redeveloping historic areas of the city. He designed the “Mulinetto” Complex, connected to the Isola della Pescheria, that is a river island in the city center, and a retirement home near Porta San Tommaso. He had the chance to work with Carlo Scarpa: in 1963 to reshape the hall of the Roma apartment building in Treviso, in 1974 to design the new city museum inside the former Monastery of Santa Caterina in Treviso, followed by the project for the new headquarters of the Bank of Gemona del Friuli, that was concluded in 1983, five years after the death of Carlo Scarpa.
His interest for exhibition setups dates back to 1967 in Treviso, when he collaborated with Carlo Scarpa on a retrospective of Arturo Martini’s work and in 1974 on an exhibition of paintings by Gino Rossi. In 1986 he conceived the exhibition “Le Venezie possibili” at the Museo Correr in Venice and “Opere Veneziane in Friuli” in the San Francesco Church of Pordenone, both curated by Giuseppe Mazzariol, a close friend of him.
During the 1980s, Luciano Gemin took care of the restoration works of the Teatro Duse in Asolo, Villa Reale in Stra (Venice), Spineda, Ancillotto and Rinaldi palaces in Treviso, but also of some urban renovation projects in Castelfranco Veneto, and the urban and structural redevelopment of a medieval town in Zegliacco (Udine). He then redeveloped an entire city block in Treviso, designing a convention center inside a 14th-century Gothic house known as “Casa dei Carraresi e dei Brittoni”: In Venice, he worked on the former Cinema Santa Margherita, now an auditorium of Ca’ Foscari University, and on the reuse of Palazzo Zorzi Liassidi. In 1992 he completed the enlargement of the Canovian Gypsotheca in Possagno, next to the structure added by Carlo Scarpa in 1956. At the turn of the new millennium, he completed the restoration works of the Eden Theater and the Santa Caterina Complex, in Treviso, as well as the Venetian residence of film director Luigi Magni, and the reuse of the former San Sebastiano Convent as the Faculty of Letters of Ca’ Foscari University.