ABSTRACT
The argument so far has postulated an analogy between the hospital project of Venice and the 'attributes and conditions' at least 'in essence' that represented the medieval fabric of the city of Venice. The task of this chapter is to analyse the city's physical characteristics and its medieval urban configuration. The hospital project was commissioned to be built in the San Giobbe district, which comprises the north-western periphery of the city of Venice. It will be necessary to discuss in detail two basic categories of urban formulations to fully grasp the urban texture that was developed through this coalesced groupings of small islets, which led to a unified whole and hence the city of Venice. The concept of urban form considered in its totality as a dynamic organization of the perpetual dialectic between structural permanence and morphological changes was initially espoused by Giuseppe Samona in his book entitled Urbanistica e l'avvenire della citta.
