Architecture & design / sections2 / Apr-jun 2019
Top Through the analysis of Venice through section the city began to be classified in a tripartite manner: above, below and at the datum line. The ‘Venice’ experienced is that above the datum (water) line: the urban fabric. Through a sectional cut, a series of facts and fictions embedded within Venice were revealed, whereby the city acts as a series of elements and scenes. above Three moments of intervention, referred to as ‘ruptures’, were determined through the sectional cut. Each rupture is an interplay whereby narratives of ‘Venice’ cease to change but are merely accentuated. These three ruptures are as follows: The Act: The bridge as a matrix and framework within in Venice (left). The Cut: The Two Red Columns of Palazzo Ducale (middle). The Veil: The Venetian wells (right). Each ‘rupture’ explores the paradox of ‘old’ and ‘new’ whereby Venice exists as neither dead nor alive.
Opposite ‘The Venetian Floor’: A simultaneous mapping of Venice’s flooding patterns and water levels. The circled location marks the zero-water height for Venice. This point acts as the ‘datum line’ and threshold between different versions of the same city: a lingering and cyclical portal whereby the ‘above’ and ‘below‘ Venice meet. Acqua Alta, meaning High Water is the point at which Venice lives on the edge of its own downfall; the life and death of the city existing in a manner which is not finite but repetitive. A constant presence which is for the most part – silent.
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9/5/19 10:39 am