Project

This project presents an alternative solution for Venice’s high tide threat - a different approach that plays along the natural elements and creates a condition that is beneficial towards the place, the city and the people.

Every year, the higher sea level pushes a tide inland and floods most of the urban area, damaging the historic buildings and putting its residents’ well-being and businesses at risk. This tide, “Acqua Alta”, is a part of the environment; of its delicate ecosystem. To protect the city’s infrastructure, a new dynamic was sought, trying to find a balance between the natural and the artificial.

“Acqua Alta” has a bigger impact in Piazza San Marco, given the fact that it is the city’s lowest point. This symbol of Venice is endangered by the systematic tides, which also prevents people from using this central and pivotal place of the city’s daily life. To deal with this issue, a new landscape was developed to keep the water away from the building, like the Basilica San Marco, and other key points of the urban tissue. This added topography reinterprets the existing streets and squares, by establishing paths and “islands” everytime the water rises and comes through the sewer system. Each 7 hours, with every tide change, a different landscape is created - a new harmony between nature and architecture.

This soft topography is a system capable of being implemented throughout Venice. It manages the rising water threat while preserving the place and its ecosystems - an innovative strategy that instead of going against the natural dynamics, it aligns its efforts with them to create a new sensible strategy.

Interview

KOOZ What prompted the project?

BS Growing up in Venice, I experienced the sea as a constant reality in motion. By the pace of each tide, the feeling within the city seemed to change - with the space expanding and retracting because of the surrounding water. The sea is a preponderant element of the city, it is a part of the culture, of the daily life, and, consequently, high water - “acqua alta” - has always been an existing natural phenomenon. Propelled by the tides themselves and the winds that pull from the Adriatic, this event is inherent to Venice but, in the last decades, the frequency and height of each tide started to pose a significant threat to the city.

The project was a possibility to study this situation and develop a strategy that is able to set the urban space in line with the natural dynamics of the tides.

KOOZ What questions does the project raise and which does it address?

BS The main objective is how to protect the city. There is always a tendency to think that in order to preserve something, it must be isolated from the exterior but Venice, as a place, is more than the historic buildings that symbolize it. The nature around it and the motion of the sea are fundamental qualities of the local ecosystems. With the Mose barrier now operating, it can be isolated from the threat. But if the city is cut out from its context, so would its fauna and flora - which without access to the exchanges they require to exist, would become endangered.

Therefore, the project deals with the question of how to deal with a fragile context that is now at risk due to the frequent high tides, without having to change its natural environment. It seeks a way of preserving the city’s activity while accepting the natural phenomena - it develops an architecture that works with nature for the benefit of urban life and the entire ecosystem.

KOOZ How did you approach the research and investigation of the tides and the effects on the city?

BS Venice was built considering the water around it and the varying tides, which were always an integral part of the city. Every time the water rises 80cm above sea level, acqua alta begins. For the design, it was considered how it has evolved since 1870 and how in the last decades its frequency has been ramping up due to Global Warming. Nevertheless, it’s not only the rising amount of water that threatens the urban landscape. Also, the pollution from the close industries of Marghera accelerates the erosion of the city’s foundations.

The current dilemma is that if Venice is isolated from the Adriatic tides to prevent the systematic flooding, the nearby pollution will only decay the infrastructure at a higher pace. For the project to work, it must take into account all these factors and find a way of preserving everything that is a part of the place.

KOOZ How much of a threat is global warming to the city of Venice?

BS Global Warming and the consequent rising sea level can mean the disappearance of Venice. If the water goes up unchecked, the urban fabric, as well as the entire ground floor level with all the shops and other commercial activities, will no longer be accessible, meaning that the city will become uninhabitable. At the same time, the foundations and the historic buildings will be subject to a high level of erosion, quickly turning a once vibrant place into a ruin. Afterwards, the pollution ailing from nearby industries will put at risk the entire ecosystems.

All these situations pose an existential threat to Venice, that now finds itself trying to preserve itself while taking advantage of the same turistic, commercial and industrial activities that allow it to function as a city and also threaten its existence. The balance between all these elements will dictate its future.

KOOZ How does the project approach and redefine the notion of landscape?

BS The most effective way to preserve the urban space of Venice is to reshape the ground floor to reduce the impact of the high tide. If the water is kept away from the buildings, activities will be allowed to resume without any constraints. Considering that the city already has a particular topography, result of the original place and centuries of activity and erosion, when the water rises, it adapts to these existing levels, flooding certain areas before others. Nevertheless, the morphology of these different heights is arbitrary and not the result of a premeditated design, which means that the tide rises in an uncontrolled fashion.

The project reinterprets this process and redesigns the topography of the public space, which consequently redirects the water to specific places, away from the entrances of the buildings. This allows the urban space to coexist with the high tides and allow it to remain a part of the city life. It takes what is considered a problem and turns it again into a feature of Venice.

KOOZ How does this new landscape approach and dialogue with the cultural urban fabric of the Serenissima?

BS The water rises from several points of the city, not just the waterfronts. This means that when a space gets flooded, it’s not just from the sea or the canals but also from the sewers. The new landscape design was based on all those entry points to maximize the efficiency of the water containment, creating paths, islands and new squares shaped by the rising tides. Every 6 hours, with each tide, the water gives shape to new atmospheres and different experiences within the same urban space. However, the overall feeling of the urban fabric is not supposed to change. For that reason, the same type of stone is used for the pavement and the new level curves only redesign the existing ones, respecting the current atmosphere. The project doesn’t attempt to create a new identity for the city, instead, it values the historical culture and its original architecture.

KOOZ What role do you believe architecture and the architect should play within the contemporary climate crisis?

BS Architects must change their approach to the production of space. They should understand the context in which they operate and develop strategies that integrate and improve the existing social and natural dynamics. It’s this specificity that will allow the new spaces to improve the local ecosystems and create a better tomorrow. With a new approach, space will not simply be built on top of Nature, it will become a “new nature”.

KOOZ What is for you the architect's most important tool?

BS Architects must be ready to adapt and deal with any type of situation at any given time. For the first time in History, it’s possible to consider numerous aspects of reality and how every decision can impact not only people but also Nature. To operate in this context, they have to be able to constantly understand it and successfully anticipate what can happen next. They must have the sensitivity to consider every transformation and still be able to create new, specific and purposeful realities adapted to each context.