Northeastern Model of the Industrial District, which became a strong economic model after the World War II, in the Veneto Region was able to overcome the classical model of industrialization thanks to combination between its tradition and modernity. Thus, it is significant to integrate regional materiality, ecology, history, culture with a contemporary architectural discourse in order to establish a new platform for the eco-tourism of the Venetian Lagoon.

Modernity of Venice

Venetian environment can be described as a net of nodes connected together by the waterways of the canals. It also describes the political organization of the Venetian territories where the power was represented by a net of strategic alliances of affiliated cities, each maintaining its own freedom. This light political model could be the expression of the real modernity of Venice.

Argument

The project starts from a Venetian bricole, which is a marine infrastructure of the Venetian lagoon. The bricole is a wooden structure for guiding sailing routes and showing signs for fishermen’s daily life. That is, the bricole has enabled people to dance with the regionality of the Venetian landscape for 1000 years. So the bricole could be an infrastructure of choreography, and the project is to design contemporary bricoles for eco-tourism by synthesizing regional materiality and universal technique. The main idea is to make people experience the Venetian nature in various ways through this eco-touristic infrastructure.

Urban scale choreoraphy

Infrastructural layers (vehicle, boat, bicycle-want to be constructed), ecological layers (water, land, salt marsh), historical layers, and production layers are important resources for eco-tourism, since they offer various experiences to tourists in the nature. If these layers are superimposed, ten intersection points would come to Venetian lagoon, and each point has a multi-functional terminal whose size and program are varied based on environment. Consequently, tourists can transfer their mobility at the intersection points. The site of the project is the one of the ten points in hybrid condition that has water, earth, salt marsh, and boat canal. Diversified experience through the intermodality and the hybrid ecology is transformed into a tourist’s own choreography on the Venetian landscape.

Critical regionalism

In Towards a Critical Regionalism, Kenneth Frampton argues that “The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place. … It may find its governing inspiration in a tectonic derived from a peculiar structural mode, or in the topography of a given site” (Frampton, 1983, p. 21). The peculiar constructional method of the Venetian bricole, which is binding wooden piles on the sea, land and salt marsh, catalyzes the synthesis between regionality and universal architectural discourse. The binding method is transformed into overlapping standardized lumbers in order to optimize systematic manipulation of the structure. Each space of the program is constructed and diversified by combinations of nine types of the structural system.

Contemporary bricole

The traditional fabrication method of the Bricole was diversified by requirements based on ecological and functional condition of the Venetian lagoon. A new way of fabricating the contemporary bricole satisfies changed functional requirements of the project like HVAC and exhibition spaces of the museum.

Placeness

As Frampton observes, “the ambient light of the exhibition volume changes under the impact of time, season, humidity, etc. Such conditions guarantee the appearance of a place-conscious poetic — a form of filtration compounded out of an interaction between culture and nature, between art and light” (Frampton, 1983, p. 27). The newly interpreted regional materiality, the contemporary bricole, is the frame for celebrating and enjoying the Venetian nature like sea, sky and light. Artifacts of the museum are vitalized in the atmosphere created by the placeness of the Venetian lagoon.