PIU-Poveglia Island University
UNIVERSITY ISLAND Competition for Poveglia Art University
The project has its roots in the desire to maintain the existing structure intact and at the same time use it as a reference for the construction of a new university on the northern island.
Here, a pure and ideal volume, generated by the alignment and the intersection with the existing structure, outlines an element that is morphologically the negative of historic buildings in the south, making an inseparable relationship between ancient and contemporary.
Filled and empty spaces are turned into new architecture, present and massive in dimension, yet ephemeral and light in perception.
As if in a timeline, past and present (old and new) are intertwined into a linear element, materialized in a portico composed of arches of different sizes which, through their particular rhythmic alternation, gives the sensation of movement as the sequence of a film stock. This will evoke, right here in the city of cinema, the first motion picture in history, "Sallie Gardner at a Gallop" shot by Eadweard Muybridge in 1873.
The intersection between the linear/time element and the volume/space gives
rise to a backdrop that recalls one of the most representative Venetian
architecture: Palazzo Ducale.
Within the University vertical connections, walkways, escalators, and elevators
engage and intertwine between the various university functions, recalling the
sinuous and labyrinthine paths of the lagoon’s alleys, while maintaining a visual relationship with water and the city.
