Looking Through
UNIVERSITY ISLAND Competition for Poveglia University
2nd Prize Winner
Venetian Lagoon is already embodying a powerful cultural, economical, and infrastructural network. Still, we are strongly convinced that Poveglia’s awakening will provide a vital improvement for the territory. University Island topic is an influential starting point that can be declined in a wider set of issues, among which cultural events, tourism, and Laguna citizens involvement.
Poveglia is part of three different territorial connections, each one characterized by different uses and users, such as: Southern Lagoon island network, that can make Poveglia a new stop-over of an exclusive touristic tour of Venetian islands; Lido linear connection, making Poveglia a leisure destination for Lido inhabitants; the direct connection with Venice in order to establish a permanent link with city cultural offering.
By looking at the other Lagoon islands it is easy to perceive a recurrent settlement logic: buildings are always condensed in a delimited area, often surrounded by walls, determining an visible dichotomy between built spaces and the open ones. This morphology has many evident technical and economical reasons, thus we decided to follow this efficient logic by densifying Poveglia’s already built area and stressing the relation with nature as a contrast, leaving the rest of the island formerly open.
Our strategy to develop a meaningful dialogue between existing and new buildings is set in four tactics: hinging the existent, surrounding, sticking, and isolating it.
One of the key features of our dense settlements is the use of 1-storey fence walls. Our walls proportions establish a continuity with Venice’s walls, even though using a contemporary language. In particular, the walls we designed trace a complex public space structure, giving shape to different kind of paths that always converge glances on the sea.
