Venice Eyebeam

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//Venice Eyebeam

This project largely incorporated the use of narrative, as the site, based in Venice, was so large it was moreimportant to understand the entire site and be able to use the space given. Theproject was to use existing buildings and incorporate new ones to house acreative design complex, housing a large auditorium/cinema, research anddevelopment centre, teaching rooms, gallery spaces, café, archive and staffareas. The project demanded a lot of thought in to the layout and planning ofeach area and how they would work with the other spaces throughout site,accessibility was a key point as the site was typically surrounded by water.The main concentrated areas of interest throughout the project were the archiveand the main entrance area to the complex. I paid particular interest to thenatural light that accessed the site, studying the path of the sun became a prominentfeature to the design of my chosen spaces. With the use of glass I was able tobring light in to spaces in an interesting way. The archive houses a uniquerolling shelving system, rather than the usual left to right motion, theshelves would move forwards and backwards allowing access to them, this meantthat the shelves rolled in and out of the building protected by a glass boxes onthe exterior of the building, which created interesting lighting effects to theinterior of the archive.

//Narrative

Giudecca lies immediately south ofthe main part of Venice separated by the Guidecca canal. The name Giudecca isbelieved to have derived from the Jews that were forced to live there, or theprisoners being deported there. From the 15 th century onwards Guideccawas covered with palaces and villas with large gardens filled with vegetation,something that you would not experience in Venice. During the 19 thcentury Guidecca went under colossal structural change. Some of the palaces,villas, gardens and churches were destroyed during this period. Only fewstructures survive today.
There is a substantial variance ofstructures on the island of Giudecca, many of the buildings are constructed oftimber and steel framing with bricked exteriors, some with a cement screedfinish, painted in a wash of worn colours. The islands buildings have anextremely industrialised façade, a flat characterless façade with a variance ofbrick quality and tone. Some of the buildings had a cement screed to which wasunpainted, creating a bland, monotone landscape of terraces along thecontrasting rich turquoise canals which run throughout the island. Visiting theisland on a murky, dreary overcast day, with the sky occupied with almostidentical tonal varieties of grey, bleeding the sky and buildings together,except where the scene is broken by the skyline of curved terracotta roof tilesexposing their blushing reds and salmon colours, stretching along the rooftopsof the terrace buildings.
The majority of buildings on theisland were in a state of decay, the drab and dreary aged shutters on many ofthe buildings, half opened, half shut framed by the chalky stained, stonewindow frames. The long established green, off white and red flag undulatingfrom one of the buildings in the distance almost without pride due to itscondition.
The prodigious, imposing red brickedhotel Hilton Molino Stucky, uncommon and in no harmony with the landscape orstyle of Venice, the building has the pride of being taller than St. Marks. Aformer flour and granary mill has been preserved and renovated to its formerglory to create a luxury 5star Hilton Hotel. The hotel dominates itssurroundings, adjacent to the mammoth structure a small canal runs the entirelength of the building. The promenade recently installed or refurbished withgrey slabs, which appeared to be more of a black colour due to continuous rain,a sand coloured stone, glimmering like marble lined the edge of walkway, almostto highlight the edge of the path, vaguely representing the safety line at atrain station which to stand behind for personal safekeeping from fast movingtrains.
Partially fenced from the watersedge with a black metal balustrade and wooden banister rail, black metallanterns, with an orange tinted glass protrude from the building to illuminatethe promenade within the hours of darkness.
The canal homed few small boats inthe rich zesty coloured water. Across from the promenade over the short canallay abandonment, destruction and derelict buildings. There is no connectionfrom the promenade to this side of the canal, except by one bridge located atthe front of the hotel. This opposite side of the canal had no walkway. It wassimply the remains of buildings and garden walls on the periphery of the water.At the Canale Della Giudecca end of the small canal, the front of the Hiltonhotel stood a building of complete destruction. The façade, partially hidden byconstruction barriers and a black cloth material presented a cement screedfinish to the building, a drab grey colour. Metal railings guarded the groundfloor windows, the upper floor windows were partially concealed by shutters towhich all shutters were not present. Vegetation protruded the façade of thebuilding, the vegetation egresses from all possible parts of the façade,continuing round the buildings façade, to its side presents completedestruction, it almost appears that a bomb had hit the building, the steelframe warped, twisted and deformed, rusting to a deep brown colour falls fromthe roof height of the building right down to the water level of the canal,where bricks piled up with other debris, wood, concrete and even morevegetation thrives from this mound of demolition. As you walk further along thepromenade with the hotel behind you, facing this mass of ruins you are able toview what was the interior of the building, completely exposed to the outsideelements. The roof entirely collapsed, which was not viewable from the façade.The internal walls shredded in half, a shattered interior glass door still attachedto its frame swinging freely in the relentless wind.
As the view moves to the back of thehouse windows are still partially concealed by shutters, which are half openedand half shut. The screed has converted to a salmon colour. Almost matching tothe red brick of the building, most of the screed has fallen from the buildingand partially covered with green algae. A large black metal garden gate stillstands at the back of the building, completely ineffective due to the gardenwall, which appears to be the bank of the canal has been completely demolished,exposing the overgrown garden. The eye is drawn to the orange glow of anabandoned cement mixer pushed up against the building, partially covered withvegetation, which has grown around and over the machine. On the opposing sideof this building another red bricked building stands in disrepair, the buildinghas a very industrialised look to the building. The wall is growing with algaeand vegetation protruding from the bricks. The side of the building facing thecanal has two circle shaped openings at the top of the building, the circleshave been constructed from brick. The circle on the left of the building hasbeen torn in two at its top part by the large steel frame protruding thebuilding and has fallen through in to this circle and stopped at its positionof the bottom of the circle. The end of the steel frame is perched on the topof a brick wall on the canal front. This brick wall stands, one of the onlyparts in current view that has not been subject to any destruction. As thescene moves further down the canal a tall dominating structure protrudes fromthe ground. Due to its state of destruction it appears as two towers. Themiddle part of the façade has completely collapsed. The exposed interiorreveals that the roof has entirely imploded. Falling to the internal ground ofthe building. Wooden beams hang, a steel cage like door, twisted and torn in tothe inside of the building, this building, possibly part of the flour mill isin a condition of complete disrepair. Glass remains shattered and foliageemerging from the small promenade at the front of the building, which must havehad something to do with loading or unloading from boats at the canal.
As the walk continues and the viewis moving past these buildings, a brick wall continues along the waterfront,the wall is in a variety of conditions as the wall continued down the rest ofthe canal. Parts of the wall were missing and some in a more complete state,full of character, with vine like foliage growing over the top of the wall fromthe well landscaped gardens that the wall was consuming from sight, large treeswere visible from location. The wall almost comes to an end once you havereached the turn in the canal. As the canal turns the wall has been destroyedand replaced by a temporary green mesh wall to conceal the garden. If youcontinue along the canal the extent of the area expands out, derelictindustrial buildings are being demolished and cleared by builders. Cranesdominate the skyline, a sign of development of for the area.