Studio Details

Location
Venice, Italy

Date
29 June-10 July, 2026

Team Leaders
Michele Pasca di Magliano (Director, ZHA)
Clemens Lindner (Senior Designer, ZHA)

with Special Studio Guest:
Andrea D’Antrassi (Associate Partner, MAD Architects)

Program
Gateway to Venice (including a future mobility hub)

Field Trips and Site Visits
H-FARM, Treviso

Project

Lanterna: Designing the New Entrance to Venice
Every day, roughly 40,000 people enter Venice from the mainland – by road, rail, and water. Their first encounter with one of the world’s most extraordinary cities is a car park: the Autorimessa Comunale at Piazzale Roma, a multi-storey municipal structure built in 1934 and expanded across the following decades.

As the private car recedes from European cities and new forms of mobility – autonomous vehicles, water taxis, drone logistics – reshape how people and goods move, the logic that built this structure is becoming obsolete. What should take its place? We propose it should be a landmark. A vertical civic act that announces Venice, frames the threshold between the mainland and the lagoon, and makes the act of arrival worth remembering. We call it the Lanterna.

As the utilitarian need it was built to serve diminishes, Piazzale Roma presents one of the most charged redevelopment opportunities in Europe. It is simultaneously infrastructure and gateway – a site where architecture must do more than accommodate movement. It must define it.

The Venetian Republic suppressed private towers. Where Florence, Bologna, and San Gimignano bristled with family towers as expressions of wealth and rivalry, Venice kept its skyline deliberately horizontal – the Council of Ten understood verticality as a threat to collective civic order. The towers that survived in Venice were public and collective: the Campanile di San Marco, the parish bell towers, and – crucially – the lanterna, the lighthouse that guided ships safely across the lagoon into port. Verticality in Venice was always in service of the city, not the individual.

We will revive that tradition and design a tower on the Autorimessa Comunale site that transforms Piazzale Roma into a genuine gateway to Venice. Our proposal should simultaneously address architecture, infrastructure, civic space, and environment. The programme is not fixed – teams are expected to define and argue their own.

The following traditions are offered as design provocations, not prescriptions.

• Murano glassblowing – blown, layered, and transparent geometries; voids within solids
• Venetian Gothic tracery – filigree stone screens and the structural logic of pattern
• Terrazzo and mosaic – aggregated surface; material richness assembled from fragment
• Venetian brickwork and water foundations – piled timber-and-brick logic made legible
• Burano lace – intricate load-distributing geometry as structural net or tensile skin

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.

London + Beijing
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Special Studio Guest / Collaborating Practice

Andrea D’Antrassi is Associate Partner at MAD Architects and leads the firm’s European office in Rome. Trained at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, he has worked internationally across Europe, Australia, China, and the Middle East on residential, cultural, mixed-use, and masterplanning projects. He currently oversees MAD’s activities across Europe and the Middle East, combining design leadership, business development, and strategic project direction.

MAD is a global architecture practice founded by Ma Yansong in 2004, with offices in Beijing, Rome, and Los Angeles. Internationally recognized for its visionary and human-centered approach, MAD creates architecture that strengthens the relationship between people, nature, and the city. The practice’s acclaimed portfolio includes the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the Fenix Museum of Migration, the Harbin Opera House, the Chaoyang Park Plaza, and the Quzhou Sports Park.

Beijing + Rome and Los Angeles
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Studio Guest

Angela Mejorin (Founder, Performance-Based Facade Design)

Internships and Opportunities

Young designers and students accepted to join ZHA at Venice Studio may be considered for available internship or job opportunities at ZHA and/or MAD. Selection of candidates is at the sole discretion of the team leaders, ZHA and MAD. Places are not guaranteed.

Program Information & Ticketing

Learn more about the program, inc., the application process and pricing here →