Saving Barene

The barena is a special environment of the Venetian lagoon, consisting in shallow islets emerging from the water, yet sensible to the tide. Specific soil composition and salinity added to the typical flora and fauna make the barene a rich and unique habitat, vital for the lagoon ecosystem. Nowadays this environment is in danger, exposed to the erosion caused by human activities in addition to the sea rise due to the climate crisis. The project wants to establish a semi-handcraft production rooted in the territory and involving the local community, aiming to protect the barene from erosion through the installation of bundles on theor edges. A similar project called Life Vimine was active in the lagoon between 2013 and 2017, but failed to progress due to lack of funding. In this sense, architecture becomes a tool to give visibility to the production and raise awareness amongst residents and visitors. The project is set on Sant’Elena island in Venice, because there the local community is still more relevant than tourism, besides hosting some underused carpentry facilities.

Year: 2022

Location: Venice, Italy

Typology: Productive/Community

An architecture for the community

The new building is designed to host the soft part of the production: branches’ bundles assemblage. Facing the water, which is the main transport system in the lagoon, the building is divided in two parts. The main room is where the production happens: a transparent facade allows people moving with the vaporetto (Venice’s waterbus) to see the community engaged in his activity, as an attempt to raise curiosity. Finished products are then stored inside the wall, merging with the architecture itself. The building is indeed a sort of showroom of the project and its process. On the other side instead there are services and storage for raw materials. With the goal of realising an architecture which serves the community, a public roof is also part of the design, giving a privileged postition to look at the lagoon, target of the production. At the back, a public seating faces the park of Sant’Elena, a unique case in Venice, increasing the value of the public space for the residents.

A production rooted in the territory

Life Vimine project

Between 2013 and 2017 the project Life Vimine took 15000 man-days to protect 1 km2 of the marshes total area of lagoon marshes. From this data we calculated that one person produces on average 2.67 bundles and 7.33 poles and we estimated that we would need 188000 bundles and 517000 poles to protect the barene of the entire lagoon.

Timing

Time period necessary in order to protect the entire lagoon

Space dimensioning

If 25 people work on the project each day they will take only 11.28 to protect the entire lagoon.

recover abandoned facilities bring back the production set a presence in the island

Raw material collection

Waste wood materials from countryside mantainance are imported to Sant’Elena.

Production of the bundles

The production is carried out by the local community of Sant’Elena in the two buildings.

Storage of products

Once assembled, bundles are stored in the building’s walls becoming part of the architecture.

Installation on the barena

Eventually, bundles are taken to the barene and installed in the landscape, protecting the edges from erosion.

Rogoredo Waveyard

Waterpark

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