Venice, june 6th 2011

Venice, june 6th 2011 What is this strange city, I travelled all over the world in my life, but I’ve never seen something like that! A city that lives on his memories, which slightly differs from that Venetian masks and 16th century’s boat races……However there is a willingness to experiment, to dare something new to be in the van of international cultural scene, but the city remains the same, always dirty, always too crowded, often flooded, exaggerated in its merits and in its defects. We outline an utopian city, and we therefore imagine an urban model not only in the form of design, but mostly as a group of principles and rules that allow and facilitate social change and think of new resources that would enable us to live better.

We need to open Venice to the world, no more it will be confined in its lagoon, which is his fortune, but also his penalty…

I dreamed something strange tonight …

“a boy runs between the big buildings and green parks, he leaves behind the blue expanse that surrounds his home and turned to inland, going through what was once the limit of a world so loved by the artists, so characteristic as to be a place of spectacular chases, of exceptional discoveries and international intrigue.

Here he is in the old lagoon, and here’s the big square with the historical Palazzo Ducale … he turns and the screen marks 7 p.m. of June 6th, 2161, above him the sun rising beyond the huge glass bubble…

The city extends towards the sea, breaking up into different poles that interface becoming solid each other and autonomous, the ancient lagoon is no more, in its place a new lagoon completely environmentally friendly, powered by clean energy and livable in every form, social and urban planning.

The old town is as we see it now, certainly as clean and renovated, certainly valued for its preciousness … and protected.

In fact it is surrounded by a kind of glass bubble, which protects it during high tide: the water not floods squares and houses anymore, but favoured in his natural movements of the tide, surrounds the city as a modern Atlantis.

But we must not think that the old town is confined in his own world, on the contrary it is linked more effectively not only with the mainland, but especially with a new territory that supports and that is the link with the sea open.

There is a new city rising on a new coast, born demolishing the existing confines of the lagoon, extending for several kilometers in the Adriatic Sea and parallel to the current coast, a portion of land, as emerged from the sea, place of a larger center, more modern, more functional, where citizens live having all the comforts and a good network infrastructure.

Faster and more efficient transport on roads and suspension rails, are guaranteed in every area through lines that connect the different poles of the new lagoon, allowing you to reach every corner of the city’s residential, tourist and executive.

Among new town’s modern houses large parks open and a long beach receives waves of the sea, while a little distant ships cross the new canal to reach the ancient port.

Two islands emerge from the center of the new lagoon, two places where every day the sun, wind and water work together to produce renewable energy and to ensure the entire Venice autonomy based on the “green economy”.

A city with zero emissions with the help of large structures built on different levels to maximize the potential of natural elements:

- photovoltaic panels mounted on the high peaks of the islands, to capture the sunlight;

- high wind turbines take advantage of the currents produced by winds from the north;

- big wheels anchored off the coast flows moving in the sea.

No more a city, but a true complex center, capable of reconciling history with the demands of daily living and cultural and technological experimentation, putting into practice the most modern engineering technology, and energy supply. .. ”

I open my eyes, I look around … I go out and think about the future …