This final year project seeks to revitalize the Venice lagoon (Laguna Veneta) as a network, beginning with an architectural design. Venice is part of countless global and local networks linking key points in the city and together presenting a network of urban islands. Unlike the physical city shaped by uninterrupted public space, the Archipelago City consists of a network tying together various points in that space. These points resemble islands. They are not directly dependent on their immediate surroundings but on the network that brings them together within a system. Physical continuity is not the most important thing here. Crucial to this system instead are the links and relationships between the islands. Call it an Archipelago System.

To give shape to this idea, I have designed an archaeological research centre to supply information to both tourists and locals about the Laguna Veneta. This brings the lagoon into the public eye. It also tackles the core of the problems afflicting Venice. With 14 million tourists each year, the pressures of globalization on local culture and city life are such that they threaten to split the city in two. At the same time tourists and citizens alike are distancing themselves more and more from the Laguna Veneta. This proposal to revivify the lagoon brings tourists and residents together using one and the same intervention. The aim is to address local and global as a single entity and at the same time repair Venice's fragmented image. The end-result is an intervention whose spaces reflect the unique character of that city.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Sandro Bisa, Alexander Vollebregt, Marc Schoonderbeek