Venice, Italy
2011

L’Isola Nascosta, the Hidden Island, was a project presented at the WAVe 2011, Workshop di Architettura a Venezia, promoted by IUAV, Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, one of most reputable European workshops, which got to its 10th edition in 2011. Thirty workshops were directed by thirty invited architects from all around the world and mobilized almost 2000 people among students, assistants and architects into an activity which nurtured itself from the atmosphere of the unique city of Venice and proposed ideas for its conservation and revitalization. We decided to work with the islands of Sacca Fisola and Sacca San Biagio -- especially the latter -- which constitute one of the ends of the Giudecca, which is precisely where it approaches the continent and, for the history of its occupation and marginal location, come to be areas for transformation. Within the perspectives for intervention and considering a new critical vision of this historic city, we have decided to propose to the city a new project for those areas, that is, those which are structured as support to the old site. Our objective was, considering the vitality of the laguna as a possible area for the extension of the archipelago, to work with operations that would enliven the contours of the historic city, expanding the programs for daily use, recovering underused territories and renovating aspects of the support infrastructure. We therefore mentioned trash, ambiental recovery and new infrastructural architectures, as transposition and connection between islands.

AWARDED FIRST PLACE IN WAVe 2011

Author: Francisco Spadoni
Assistants: Giacomo Favilli, Chiara Cavalieri, Nicola Bedin, Andre Castellani, Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin