Growing up during the Lebanese Civil War, famed architect and designer Aline Asmar d’Amman was often cozied in her room, her nose buried in a book to dampen the noise from the bombs outside. One of those stories transported her to a world she would one day come to know quite well. It was an essay written by Russian American writer Joseph Brodsky, who wrote awe inspiring prose on Venice, its charm and treasures.

Little did she know that when she was all grown up, she would spend almost a decade envisaging and executing the renovation of one of the city’s most historic palaces, Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, a noble residence built in 1436. Its original design was led by master architect Filippo Calendario, one of the visionaries responsible for the design of Palazzo Ducale, the ancient seat of the Venetian Republic (Doge’s Palace).

Eight years ago, Arsenale Group asked her to turn an old Venetian residence into the hospitality world’s latest gem with the Orient Express. Orient Express joined Arsenale in 2022 on the Palazzo Dona Giovannelli project. Asmar d’Amman is also currently working with its owner Arsenale Group on the Dream of the Desert train, the Gulf region’s first luxury travel vessel. “I remember my encounter with Paolo Barletta when I entered the palazzo for the first time. There was dust in the air and rays of light, and it was a suspended moment,” she reminisces.

It wasn’t the first time Asmar d’Amman has worked on a hotel. Before Karl Lagerfeld‘s death, she led the artistic direction of the renovation of Paris’ Hôtel de Crillon, elevating it to a modern, regal glory. With her studio Culture in Architecture, she was in charge of designing its exceptional suites and historical salons. She also worked as the architect to Lagerfeld on the hotel’s Les Grands Appartements, which were outfitted with crystal chandeliers, marble baths, Lit à la Polonaise canopy beds, and 18th-century double doors that were originally designed for the Royal Opera House of Bordeaux.

Orient Express’ latest location tells Venice’s history. It’s brimming with defining characteristics and historic relics, like the octagonal staircase added to the site by 19th-century architect Giovanni Battista Meduna. Meduna is famous for other cultural landmarks like the Ca’ d’Oro and the city’s La Fenice theatre. It also houses the baroque Sala Vittoria, originally created for the 1548 wedding between the Duke D’Urbino’s son, Guidobaldo II della Rovere, and Princess Vittoria Farnese, the Library of Cultures adorned gilded wood accented with lapis lazuli as well as a music room, frequented by generations of Venetian high society. When it officially opens April 1, guests of the hotel will be privy to a rare Venetian welcome. They will begin their journey by private boat and will enter the venue through a 15th-century Gothic portal on the canal or through a discreet doorway into the Santa Fosca secret garden.

An Arduous Task

The revamp process, however, was hardly a romantic endeavor. At times, the work was tedious and involved a team of experts including a supervisor from the Culture Ministry, engineers, patrimonial architects and many artisans. At the start, the project required building a damn to drain the water from the facade. A team of divers excavated the stones of the underwater foundation and inserted each one with a straw to extract the water inside, over hundreds of meters around the canals to dry, she recalls.

The stones that make up the walls and floors from the ground level were also treated one by one: Each one was removed then numbered, soaked in basins of electrified salt water to also remove the salt from the stones, she recalls.

“And this is where I think about Joseph Brodsky, because he has this most beautiful sentence about the stones of Venice looking like the flesh of time. And he said, every surface carves dust because dust is the flesh of time,” she says, adding that the excavation team unearthed a well in the courtyard that could date back to the origins of Venice.

In the 1800s, the palazzo functioned as a Pinacoteca housed the 15th- and 16th-century painter Giorgione’s “Tempesta.” Meduna controversially sought to block the natural light emanating through the neo Gothic arches on the main facade, in an attempt to protect the famed painting. The Tempesta is now housed in Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia.

Asmar d’Amman is careful to point out that she stayed true to the work of both Calendario and Meduna. The spaces have been entirely transformed, some new surface layers have been added, yet every new addition was carefully thought out, with the ultimate goal of creating liveable hospitality scenes that dialogue with a historic past. 

“These salons have six-meter high ceilings and frescoes on the wall you can’t really touch. They also have decor on the ceilings you can’t really touch. They’re not only elements of heritage but also of wonder, balancing east and west, orientalist influence with the finest craftsmanship, speaking to Venice’s rich history of cultural exchange and artistic innovation,” she says, stressing the intent to respect its origins as a home, while transforming five historical salons into five exclusive suites.

If These Walls Could Talk

You have to keep the soul intact, otherwise you would miss out on the fact that this was a grand home of the Donà then the Giovannelli families and that was passed to the Duke D’Urbino — all of them great patrons of the arts. It was also a hub for intellectuals and scientists who were opposed to the oppression of the Austrian occupation that endured from 1797 to 1805 and again in 1815 to 1866. The latter part included the anti-Austrian movement.

Some of the artistry inside, she says, embodies this era of resistance. “There are painted medallions of the scientists and the intellectuals who met here to reinforce the Italian spirit, contributing in their own way to the independence of Italy. They are met by the gaze of fierce goddesses painted on the ceilings — such as La Minerva, goddess of justice warfare and victory, and protector of the arts — bathed in [Giovanni Battista] Tiepolo and Tintoretto’s [Jacopo Robusti] palette of lost colors. Strength and grace, architectural marvels and the mystery of whispered tales permeate the grounds with the power of transformative artistry,” she muses.

As this is the 21st century, there will be some contemporary accents, like the photography of Sheila Metzner, who once worked with Lagerfeld on a Fendi campaign in the 90s and whom Asmar d’Amman contacted specifically for this project. Elsewhere, there will be a salute to one of Lagerfeld’s favourite catwalk muses, and one of Venice’s most revered residents, Luisa, Marchesa Casati Stampa di Soncino. Casati Stampa di Soncino inhabited Peggy Guggenheim’s former home Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and infused Venice with 1920s glamour, wild parties with big band music and monkeys and filled it with famous guests like her lover, poet Gabriele D’Annunzio and visual artist Man Ray.

Lagerfeld’s memory and key advice was also with her throughout this project, especially when tackling the most complicated challenges. “We would spend hours on details or designing something and then, he always used to say ‘corriger est plus important que faire’ quoting [Charles Pierre] Baudelaire. It’s a certain état d’esprit or mindset that means reworking relentlessly is more important than just doing it.”