Venice

The proposal highlights a socially and culturally opulent seam in Venice, which extends from San Angelo, San Marco, beyond the Accademia Bridge to San Agnese of Dosoduro. This area is characterised by inherently complex and dialectical relationships; public and private areas, and a mixed demographic of locals and tourists. Aside from the typical cultural buildings of Venice, the seam is interspersed by three major cultural sites, La Fenice, the Gallerie dell’ Accademia and Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e d’Arti which function as international institutions, all existing on a macro scale but with many aspects of their program separated or even completely independent from their surrounding cultural context.

The project observes the relationship between private and public spaces inherent in this area. It is apparent that although the seam is frequented by tourists and locals alike, generally they do not have a propensity to venture beyond the ‘main route’ or thoroughfare, which carries them from one tourist hot spot – the Accademia Bridge to the Rialto. The proposal aims to disrupt the existing enfilade arrangement of campo, campiello, corte, aula, cabinete and substitute it with a less distinct public/private urban structure to aid greater interconnectivity.

Consequently, the master plan addresses the perceived closed nature of this seam and its institutions, making fundamental gestures, modifying the institutions to allow increased access and openness. Ergo, three significant interventions are proposed along the seam acting within the thickness of the urban environment, directly impacting upon these institutions. This is achieved through the piercing, extruding, projecting and relocating of built form and formal programmes and the subsequent addition of further functions and interfaces. Thus through these interventions, the private nature of these institutions becomes perforated enabling a greater public interface with their nearby surroundings, whilst affirming their importance within the city itself.

La Fenice was the world’s first opera house for the public, opera having previously been reserved for the courts. The Theatre fulfilled its heyday in the mid to late 19th Century with the works of Giuseppe Verdi. Since this time it has lost much of its local public audience. The design centres on a series of interventions in the surrounding urban fabric, which act as both costume and scenery workshops for upcoming shows, and as performance spaces for external professional theatre companies. The two activities will bring La Fenice back into the limelight and help to move Venice towards a ticket-less culturally rich environment.

The Istituto Veneto di Science, Lettere ed Arti is an cultural institution of international significance based at Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti and Palazzo Loredan in Campo San Vidal and Campo Santo Stefano respectively, north of the Accademia Bridge. The project aims to distort the boundary between the institution and the public realm by transposing elements of the program out into the fabric of the seam.

The Archive, reading spaces and research facilities will exist as a constellation of structures entwined with the membrane of the site and the flow of people through it. The archive stacks are raised up seeming to float above the landscape creating a verticality to the movement of people through these elements and within the seam. The landscape below reflects the percolation of people through these spaces and the resulting distortions house the research facilities associated with the institute.

The Accademia Bridge has been redesigned to open up the Gallerie dell’ Accademia to the public realm. Rather than solely spanning over the Grand Canal, the bridge continues along its trajectory, directly incising through the Gallerie dell’ Accademia creating an elevated route through the gallery that offers a unique experience to commuters and voyeurs.

The ground floor of the Palladian wing of the gallery has been opened up to allow new access – this is met by a reinstated canal, both act in conjunction to encourage and stimulate further use of the space in and around the gallery.