Venice, the city and the lagoon: a lost relationship?

Abstract

In June 2011, the Venetians Engineers organized a conference entitled: The Eighth district. The Laguna as a connection matrix. In a world where the concept of “city”, which has become improper, applies to so-called historical centers that increasingly large conurbations, much of the Laguna is peripheral space, where inedited stories and resonant events living with full-blown environmental degradation and decay culture, make it a place of margin. Today, the lagoon and coastal areas are a continuous with the water spaces and islands that separate them, facing with unfinished waterfront towards brackish non-places. In this context, the debates and choices around the Laguna alternate without a unified design. Venice is always less connected with the surroundings by water, and the water itself become a limit to mobility, where, on the contrary, it was the element that guaranteed it.

In the renewed debate on development strategies, realized the MOSE, it will be asked for which city it has been made. The conference drew attention to the rediscovery of the central role of the Lagoon. Between local development and global challenges, including heritage and environmental protection. Is it possible to envisage a revitalization of the lagoon system as a matrix of physical and cultural connection? Which opportunities are offered today to the city of Venice to rediscover its amphibious and cosmopolitan size and discover the Laguna as an Eighth District? A place of sites for residence, recreation, work, in a renovated urban dimension across the board, opened towards the spaces of the islands.