Commissioned: Vento di Venezia
Period: 2010 - on going
Country: Italia
Thetis, along with architect Tobia Scarpa, has developed the final project for the new Certosa Island Urban Park on behalf of Vento di Venezia.This land redevelopment project is designed to rehabilitate Certosa Island, thereby returning a large and unique area of the historic city to productive use.
The project, which focuses on urban quality, environmental sustainability, efficiency and experimentation, envisages three separate areas having different themes.
To the south, an urban environment will be created in the most developed part of the island, where fireworks factories once stood. After cleaning up the area and selectively removing overgrown vegetation, the buildings will be renovated to provide functional, energy efficient spaces for small businesses, as well as educational, hospitality and sports facilities.
The area that for centuries was home to monastery gardens will be a rural environment featuring vegetable gardens and vineyards, as well as facilities for educational activities, which will be housed in the restored cloister and a second reconstructed building. In the archaeological area behind the cloister, the layer of grass covering the site will be left intact to allow for the possibility of future archaeological research and study.
The “new island”, constructed in the early decades of the twentieth century with materials dredged from a nearby seaplane station, will be a natural environment. The island will have paths along the perimeter, as well as interior nature trails designed to enhance the area’s natural aspects and foster a use of the island that simultaneously protects and highlights its most important features.
These three environments will combine to create a large, well-equipped park that is also an “environmental laboratory” in which natural environments and human activities typical of the Venice lagoon coexist. There are paths through natural areas and places for children, as well as areas for art and culture; some zones will be completely rehabilitated, while others will be left as nature created them, with trees and salt marshes, wetlands and meadows.
Water is also an important aspect of the project, which will include floating landings that will increase the number of moorings available for water sports and ensure that visitors who come to the island in their own boats have a place to dock. Another opportunity for recreation will be provided by the floating pool, a removable structure that is perfectly compatible with the natural environment. Finally, two new floating drawbridges will connect Certosa Island with Vignole and San Andrea islands, thereby contributing to their development.
This project, coordinated by Thetis (and for which the company developed structural and building services designs, and conducted environmental studies), has become a model of best practices for urban redevelopment projects and was presented as such at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
