Studio Brief & Information

Venice has always managed to preserve its architectural image built over centuries of history, yet daily life has a very different experience due to the loading and unloading requirements of the main form of public transport: the Vaporetto.

The Vaporetto in Venice is the equivalent to bus transport in any global city, with the main difference that its stops are bulky and unsightly, becoming a visual obstruction to the beautiful city that the locals work so hard to preserve. it’s as well an incredible way to see the city- and fascinating to compare to conventional land-based transit systems.

The Vaporetto Station is a pavilion that aims to create a contemporary image of an historic city, playing at the same time the “access door” for each urban settlement.

In a world where technology and design are becoming ever more related, we want to propose a new modular station for the Venetian Vaporetto, which will be a proud symbol of its busy modern life, with due consideration to their settings, environmental impact and buildability.

The studio will focus on the main stations along Canal Grande from the principal train station Santa Lucia to Piazza San Marco.

The station is a public venue that may combine a range of programs and use, into a complex of buildings nestled into the landscape blurring the boundaries between infrastructure and architecture.

We aim to help your disciplinary understanding, evolve your design techniques but most of all how you intend to deploy your knowledge and instrumentality in creating new design content. In fact each student has the possibility of exploring the idea of a new contemporary station in dialogue with the context, that can enable multiple configurations, spaces and connection. Experimenting with notions on materials and scale and relationship with the water.

We intend the Vaporetto Station as an experience rather that a temporary space, where tourists and local citizens can perceive the feeling of being in Venice, and enhancing their feeling with the context, adding a series of new space that empathize the history, instead of obscuring its beauty.

In the city of Venice where the infrastructure plays a fundamental role with a frozen architecture, we see the opportunity to think of a new innovative way of giving identity to a place that has to adapt to technological and urban requirements. As disciplinary contribution through the combination of research and practice.

Field Trips

• Fondazione Querini Stampalia
• Cino Zucchi, Alvaro Siza and Gino Valle in the Giudecca
• Venice island Vaporetto trip (Murano, Burano, Torcello, Giudecca, Vignole, Lido)
• Fondazione Masieri Memorial
• Biennale Arte
• Venice Palladio tour, San Giorgio – Redentore – San francesco della Vigna
• Olivetti Showroom

Internships

Are internships at ZHA available to students of this Studio?
Yes. Internship places are available

Locations Available:
London

Details:
Students accepted into the ZHA Studio at Venice Studio are eligible for selection to undertake an internship at ZHA. Selection of candidates is at the sole discretion of the studio directors and ZHA. Places are not guaranteed.
*Please contact us at Venice Studio using the form below for further information about these opportunities.

ZHA

ZHA redefined architecture for the 21st century with a repertoire of projects that have captured imaginations across the globe. Creating buildings uniquely tailored to the communities they serve, ZHA has been awarded the highest honours from professional and academic institutions worldwide. Founded by Dame Zaha, ZHA is one of the world’s most innovative architectural studios—and has been for almost 50 years. These five decades of detailed research are inscribed within ZHA’s buildings which become more spatially inventive, more structurally efficient, more technologically advanced, and more environmentally considerate with each new design. ZHA’s 500 staff in five offices worldwide are currently developing projects in 34 countries across six continents—combining pioneering design solutions with ecologically sound materials and sustainable construction practices to meet the aspirations of each new generation.

MAXXI Museum
Rome, Italy

© Iwan Baan