Discover Squero di San Trovaso

The squero does not look Venetian, and that is the most informative thing about it. The buildings are timber, two storeys, with pitched roofs and open galleries along the upper floor -- the vernacular of the Cadore valleys in the Dolomites, built here by the boatbuilders who came down from there and stayed.

Venice built in brick and Istrian stone because it had no timber of its own; the wood came downriver from the mountains, and so did the men who worked it. The sheds are what happens when a mountain building tradition is set down on a lagoon fondamenta.

The form follows the work. The yard slopes directly into the Rio di San Trovaso so hulls can be run down into the water, and the sheds are open-sided so boats can be moved in and out and worked on under cover. There is no facade in any Venetian sense -- the front is a working slipway.

Behind it, the house is where the boatbuilding family lived above the workshop, which is why the upper storey has balconies and the ground floor has none.