Connecting Landscapes


Certosa Island is the door to the North Lagoon and, at the same time, the natural expansion of Venice. A small piece of land that connects the urban landscape of Venice to the natural and evolving landscape of the lagoon. The island also brings, in its own structure, a bipolarity which goes from an urban and human landscape to a natural and wild one. The aim of the project is to harmonize and connect those two extremes.

Connecting Landscapes tells a story about the relationship, the dialogue and the exchange between the various landscapes which coexist on the Certosa Island. An urban landscape, a "time" landscape, a humid landscape, and a spontaneous landscape all constitute a progressive experience which goes from the urban to the wild. The gradual passage is achieved thanks to a series of intermediate landscapes with feeble borders but still with a particular identity. The role of human beings is different for each landscape, both in its design and usage – decreasing from the urban landscape to the natural one. However for the vegetation component, the densities, the size and the visual structures change with each landscape as well, but they grow from Venice to the lagoon.

A structure holds together the several landscapes – it is strong and adaptable, capable of adjusting itself according to the various landscapes that it goes through. It is the backbone of an evolving landscape, made of a strong and rigid longitudinal spine from where a series of transversal connections are born. Those connections are defined by the specificities of the accompanying landscape.