New Venice, New World

New Venice, New World: The unabating tide rushes for the City of Venice, the issue of flooding affects the people every day, as global warming gets worse the tide comes sooner and stays for longer year on year. Soon the City will be submerged. The reports that say that the City is sinking is also of concern. To what degree, we are unsure. To re-invent Venice and to inject new blood into her veins will need creation beyond what people think could save her. The fact that creation will be taking place perhaps overshadows re-invention. The creation will require a sensitive romantic view on the matter, taking the history and architectural heritage into consideration. There is a way to create a New Venice without destroying the grace the Old City exhibits, allowing the Old City to be almost embalmed in a new coat of youth and excitement. The tides would be dealt with as they have been for centuries, by barocading the Old City within a wall. The system would employ the use of locks to control the levels of the water on both sides. Locks would be positioned strategically to ensure that all sides of the city are equally accessible.

The locks would remain open most of the day during low tide, giving the boats and vessels free access. However, the locks become functional once the rise in water is detected, thus preventing the water entering and flooding the Old City.

In this, is the opportunity to create a mass of new urban development. The New World will preserve and encapsulate it, however, be apart. The concept is that the new architecture should not be invasive, but different, bold yet distant. The common denominator is the sea “Laguna Veneta” This ties them together, a symbiosis and a partnership…they need each other to survive!

An interpretation of the symbiosis of these two worlds is in fact the antithesis between them, and that one should not dominate the other.

There are four parts to the design of which three are known by default namely: the old, the new and that body in-between, but who is to say that we cannot make habitation below what we cannot see? The design makes use of space otherwise backfilled to make land mass to “support” the living mass above. This space, otherwise lost, is used for transportation via train, connecting the Old and the New, making everything accessible.

The boats for the romantic, the trains for the frantic and the submersible craft for the adventurous and daring!

The drive to save energy is the conversation at every design conference, however a New World would demand that the energy demands and requirements are efficient. Collection of heat from ground and structures, using ground source heat pumps and solar panels generating current for everyday consumption will be a priority. Eco-technologies for conserving, rather than wasting, are a must.

Recycling everything possible, is proposed from grey water to plastics. Paper is recycled too. The collection of rainwater is also proposed with collection tanks discreetly hidden from view.

Landscapes also provide a psychological wellbeing in humans that we all need. People will want to bring their families here to “tap” into wellness. It would be a place to raise a family, live your life and grow old. A city is required to have open and public spaces where people can exercise, meet and greet in a common habitat. In the design, provision has been made in each node as to suggest such spaces.

This is a dream of a New World.