Venice Biennale Installation

Venice, Italy

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Venice Biennale Installation

Venice, Italy

Firm

Type

Cultural ›

YEAR

2004

The working title “Acqua Alta” refers to the high tide water that floods the 1,000 yr. old sinking city of Venice up to 100 times a year. This tidal invasion of brackish water, affected by forces that range from the moon to local winds, is part of everyday life for the average Venetian. The city is routinely stained/invaded by these surges that at times reach as high as 2 meters above mean sea level. (flood of 1966) Venice is an improbable city - one that places human civilization directly in contact with natural and evolutionary forces. It is a city of stone supported by millions of concentric circles of decaying wooden piles. It is also an appropriate place to study and advance the design of space that fundamentally relates to the intersection and contemplation of human and natural forces.Beginning with Venice as a locus for the project, the installation will:1. Evolve American architectural typologies that have dealt directly and indirectly with contemplation, spirituality, and sacred space. By reinforcing and advancing the 20th century trend of space that accommodates a plurality of needs and desires that are related to contemplation, spirituality and reflection - both religiously based (multi-denominational) and non-religiously based. From this fertile field of accommodation, we seek to embrace a multiplicity and complexity of reading and understanding of what defines contemplation/spirituality/sacred space.2. Conceptualize the design thru a site conditioned/determined process; immersing ourselves into the amazingly rich context of Venice; intentioning ideas of sinking city, rising water, the demarcation of natural forces on architecture, and atmospheres of light/air into the installation. Like the underpinning piers and the medium of water, we will define a maximal space - dense, rich and immersive with a minimal of material means. Using lightness, invisibility and precise demarcation. Purposefully engage the changing light entering the skylight, so that it affects the appearance, and experience of the installation - at times amplifying its visibility and at times reinforcing invisibility.Preliminary project description:In plan our project is based on a “pixelated” field that evokes water patterns, marsh patterns and the complex patterns of piers that underpin the city. Approximately 5,000-6,000 points demarcating these patterns would be extruded in the form of filament line from floor to ceiling with discrete connections to floor and ceiling. Each strand of nearly invisible filament would be stained to a height around average adult eye level - referring to the highest tidal levels in Venice and to evoke a sense of sinking into a medium. Paths cut between denser islands of filament would allow for a rich spatial experience, placing the viewer in many different positions relative to the strings. Within an all white space natural light would be diffuse, flowing across the filament - at times highlighting them and at times reinforcing their invisibility.

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Predock_Frane Architects

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Venice Biennale Installation

Venice, Italy

Venice Biennale Installation

Venice, Italy

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team