Studio Details

Location
Venice, Italy

Date
3-14th July, 2023
(8/9th weekend free unless notified otherwise)

Fee
2500 Euro

Studio Directors in Venice
Francesco Magnani (director, MAP Studio), Traudy Pelzel (director, MAP Studio)

Studio Project
Urban Regeneration with Social / Cultural Interventions

Time Commitment
3.5hrs / day classes (+ fild trips, lectures and site visits)
*students should expect to spend additional time outside class to develop their projects

Required Skills
Free hand drawing, CAD, physical study modelling and/or 3D digital modelling

Required Software
No specific requirements

Resources
Laptop computer

Field Trips and Site Visits
A day trip to Fabrica outside Treviso. Restored and expanded by Japanese architect Tadao Ando

Forte Marghera

note: The cost of all studio activities are covered by the Venice Studio program (inc. any transport), therefore there is no additional cost to students.
A week-long public transport ticket and entry ticket to the Architecture Biennale (Giardini and Arsenale) are also included.

Studio Project

It is a widespread belief that since the fall of the Serenissima at the end of the 18^th century the city of Venice has remained almost unchanged. For the multitude of tourists who visit the city every year, it appears as an open-air museum where coexistence between heritage and the contemporary is very difficult if not impossible. A vision of a city with a consolidated structure and saturated urban conformation persist and in this fossilised system the new does not seem to find a place. This stereotype, however, clashes with a completely different reality, especially in the contemporary era.

Between the  19^th and 20^th century a lot was built in Venice and there is evidence of empty spaces not only on the borders but also in the city centre. Emblematic of this reality is the case of Giudecca Island where a north facing bank characterised by a lack of modernity offsets a continuous sequence of architectural events in its centre. Clearly, though, the condition of coexistence is unique in Venice – all the parts in the game are forced to confront each other within a narrow perimeter and in a limited space where each event has a series of repercussions on the whole.

An interesting example of the above is the island of San Giorgio, opposite the basin of San Marco in the heart of Venice. The history of the island  is that of an absolutely central place in Venice, which traces its origins back to the 10th century when a Benedictine monastery and church dedicated to the saint already existed. At the beginning of the 17th century, the church of San Giorgio was rebuilt according to the 1565 design by Andrea Palladio, whose façade facing St. Mark’s Square became one of the best known and most portrayed images of the city. Important works on the monastery were then carried out by Baldassarre Longhena, who built the monumental staircase and the famous library between 1641 and 1671. In the 19th century, after the suppression of the monastery in 1806, the island was the site of specialised public functions: it was the area of the merchant port and military zone, a condition maintained until the mid-20th century when, after extensive restoration work, the island became the headquarters of the Foundation that Vittorio Cini dedicated to the memory of his son Giorgio on 12 July 1951.

The Giorgio Cini Foundation is a non-profit foundation and art and culture centre with the “purpose of promoting the restoration of the monumental complex on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and encouraging the establishment and development of educational, social, cultural and artistic institutions on the island, if necessary in collaboration with existing city institutions“. The small island in front of St. Mark’s Square was in fact seriously degraded by almost one hundred and fifty years of military occupation; the restoration and reclamation work carried out by the foundation made it possible to re-integrate it into the life of Venice and make it an international centre of cultural activities. The Foundation’s birth represented the rebirth of an abandoned and disfigured place and also the rebirth of the entire city. To this day restoration and renovation work continues across the island including at the monastery complex.

It is with the extraordinary history of the evolution of this island that we will be confronted with during our studio, in order to reconnect with the tradition of imagining a future through the implementation of the island’s cultural endowments and the redesigning of some of its strategic parts in the wake of illustrious previous work.

MAP Studio

MAP studio is an international office for architecture, urbanism and design, which began in 2004 with the union of architects Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel, who then founded their joint architectural firm in  2010, now located in the historic centre of Venice in a beautiful workspace on the second main floor of palazzo Foscarini in front of Carmini church.

MAP studio carries out assignments and combines public and private professional activities with research, focusing on architectural design and urban renewal as well as the transformation of existing buildings, interior design and exhibition design.

Completed works range from the noted renovation of the Porta Nuova Tower in the Venice Arsenale, which presents a benchmark building for the renovation design of historic buildings, to a custom set of exhibition designs, new buildings and several restorations.

Recently MAP studio completed the restoration of a Carlo Scarpa house in Venice. The story of this exceptional building site is documented in the book titled; The House on Grand Canal published by Electa.

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Partner

Fondazione Giorgio Cini

The Fondazione Giorgio Cini, located on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, was created in 1951 by Vittorio Cini to commemorate his son Giorgio, who had died tragically in an air crash on August 31,1949. The Foundation is the earliest example in Italy of a private organization whose principal aims included humanistic studies at a time when collective interest was focused on economics, science, and technology.

The Foundation’s initial projects were focused on solving some of the urgent problems afflicting Italy and Venice in the postwar period. Today the Fondazione Giorgio Cini is an internationally recognized cultural institution which continues to draw inspiration from its original vocation and at the same time plays a leading role as a center for studies and a venue for meetings and debate on current issues. Its academic activities – research projects and events aimed at improving our “knowledge of the world” – continuously interact with thinking on the current political and social scene aimed at promoting multidisciplinary approaches and experimenting with exchanges between forms of knowledge and various scientific and professional cultures.

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Internships

Students accepted into the MAP Studio class at Venice Studio may be considered for available internship or job opportunities at MAP Studio. Selection of candidates is at the sole discretion of the studio director and MAP Studio. Places are not guaranteed.

VS23 Program Information

For Deatiled Program Information click HERE

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