Venice, an island in a lagoon

Venice, an island in a lagoon, is one of the most visited cities of the world, in fact it has been reproduced abroad in 1:1 scale. It arose from the water thanks to human intelligence and became the centre of commercial and cultural trades. This important artistic and architectural heritage, joined with national and international cultural instances, led to famous film festival, art and architecture exhibitions. Its charm and sensations that it provides to people walking through canals, in addition to its rule in the history make Venice unique.

The main aim of the project is to provide a view of the contemporary city raising the viewpoint above the ground, enclosing Venice in a huge frame. From this new point of view the city can look at the real matrix of its own identity without blending into it, fixing its meanings and essence, and especially its modernity. Through this sort of yard, the new city can look at its history, as an immortal city, deeply rooted to its past but willing to live its future freely and authentically.

The two surfaces will be linked to the mainland through vertical structures, structural elements of the frame and, at the same time, nevralgic points of a new way to communicate, easy and fast. The new structure hosts everything is needed to everyday life of cities: residential areas and spaces designed for the community, facilities useful for private and public activities.  The two story frame dialogues with symbols and, especially in the highest level, compare itself with cultural features imprinted in the DNA of Venice: the alternation of solids and voids, the poetic lightness of its historical buildings, their shapes reverberant and reflected in the canals, the rhythm of their facades, the knowledge that led to tame the water and to force nature to affirm the strong will to exist. All these elements become the guidelines of the project. The new hanging settlement we have designed is similar to a pile-work system, where the natural element to control is air, not water, and the alternation of solids and voids reminds to the incomplete texture of a mosaic, the concise interpretation of cultural Byzantine hybridization.