Awards:Mies van der Rohe Award 2009, Selected project AR Award 2008, Honourable Mention Located in the Nortehrn Lagoon Park north of Venice, on
the southeastern edge of Sant'Erasmo island, the new water water filtration
plant is part of the general urban and environmental upgrading of the islan...
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Awards:Mies van der Rohe Award 2009, Selected project AR Award 2008, Honourable Mention Located in the Nortehrn Lagoon Park north of Venice, on
the southeastern edge of Sant'Erasmo island, the new water water filtration
plant is part of the general urban and environmental upgrading of the island
that the Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia is implementing through the Consorzio
Venezia Nuova, within the context of a programmatic agreement between the
Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia, the Veneto Region and the Municipality of
Venice.
The fragility of the island, its indefinite shores that change contours and
thickness with the tide, the beautiful Austrian battery, trace of the more
extensive system of fortifications that once existed in the lagoon, whose thick
and solid walls leave a mark on the lagoonal landscape, the regular
division of the artichoke cultivations and the ghebi or internal canals design
the landscape and the building becomes part of its character.
The theme of the project is the design of a 'threshold space', the point where
the land and its ground comes to an end.
Four one meter thick parallel walls, built in reinforced
concrete colored red with pigment and constructed as rough, untreated surfaces
give the space the building form, like the ruins of an old battery, at the same
time defining structure and shape.
The spaces between the concrete structures are closed by
full-height panels in Iroko planks that may be opened at the entrance and in
the areas used for unloading of dust.
The red concrete walls also serve as basic structures for the design of the
landscape. The building buries its roots deep into the ground, at the same time
facing the land, the void as a possible façade.
Inaccessible due to regulations, the new depurator was to have occupied a large
part of the public land of the island. This has become one of the themes of the
project: working on the distribution of the flows used in the depuration, it
has been possible to bury a significant part of the construction, that only
appears like a form in the land, the only surfacing parts being those necessary
for maintenance and the final removal of the residual dusts.
The building consists of two parts: an underground area
that contains the depuration part and the space above ground that hosts the
area where the mud is dried, an electric cabin and an area for maintenance.
In fact, the underground area with its roof openings contributes to design a
new land which becomes a play with paths that intersect one another, forming a
pattern with the vegetation. Lavender and phlox, broom, lavender cotton and
rosemary follow and reflect the development of the building. They design the
accessible part of the park in such a way that the building, which on the
contrary is inaccessible, takes on an ampler significance, as an element for
'land-watching' that may become an essential part of the system of the Park
itself.
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Featured on Architizer
Located in the Nortehrn Lagoon Park north of Venice, on the southeastern edge of Sant'Erasmo island, the new water water filtration plant is part of the general urban and environmental upgrading of the island that the Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia is implementing through the Consorzio Venezia Nuova, within the context of a programmatic agreement between the Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia, the Veneto Region and the Municipality of Venice.
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