Urban Superimpositions

Venice, Italy  2011-12

Academic Work: Harvard University, Graduate School of Design

Course Instructor: Luis Castro de Rojo

Area: 3700sqm

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Piazzale Roma, the bus station in Venice, represents the main entry point to the city. The project proposes to shelter the bus station from different weather conditions while superimposing another programme inside its walls: The Public Facilities of the Historical Archives of the City of Venice. The building presents the archives of Venice to its people and visitors while preserving all physical content in their original location.

 

The project is composed of a series of rooms cast in concrete that hover above ground. Each room uses different means of portraying, and narrating, the archives while taking advantage of current technologies. The autonomy of spaces found throughout the building depicts the diversity and richness of the archival material itself. In addition, the linking and succession of the rooms is informed by the logic and sequence of the archives: in their ties they form a series of loose and tight formations that reflect the way Venice’s archives appear to contrast, contradict, assert and complement itself.

 

The rooms are bound together by a structural diagonal system of heavy concrete beams. The structure also ties down the archives on the upper level to the bus station underneath. On the ground level, it is perceived as a spatial organizational system that follows the rigid bus layouts - as required for the efficiency of the station. On the upper level the system adapts to the spatial requirements of the rooms, and takes part in forming the scenarios for each space. In other words, the structure is neither fully dismissive of nor fully compromising to the needs of the two different programmes.

 

The archives is rendered as a silent autonomous object on site site, almost turning its back to the surroundings of Piazzale Roma. It serves as a sheltering structure in most basic terms. The building reveals glimpses of the programme, and movements of people moving from mass to mass, to passengers using the bus station. Once inside, the spaces begin to depict the very essence of what Venice is to locals and visitors alike - a city in which complexity is taken as charm and intrigue. The archives aim to immerse the visitors in an intense visual/interactive session on history.