Redesigning an Island

Located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, Poveglia epitomizes the definition of an island as a detached or isolated space – not only in terms of its disconnection from Venice but, more elaborately, in its limited approachability via canals that are so definitive in their access. Changing its primary access is fundamental to this project’s intervention, by relating Poveglia more to its approach from Venice from the north side through the Canale di Santo Spirito.

In creating a new point of access, the canal would be extended in width, reducing the waterbed on the island’s eastern periphery, reaching a main entrance projecting out of the land, and defining the start of a wide and ceremonial path extended from the rectangle of the existing buildings. This entrance path would be the start of a network of main orthogonal paths that connect the spread of structures around the space.