st erasmo:construction of system

st erasmo: permaculture workshop

answers from yona friedman

Yona Friedman
FX 00 331 4734 6911

2.03.10

Dear Marjetica,
here are the answers to the questions:

1. Water: cities, in the past, got their water often by aqueducts (that is the case, for
example, in modern Paris).

2. Floating suburbs on the laguna might be an alternative solution to create residences for
the Venetians. Another one could be the “Venice spatiale” I worked on earlier.
Both of these solutions leave the water surface intact.

3. I think that an extension (Ville Spatiale) above the Ponte della Libertà would be a better
link for the mainland (Mestre) and serves as well as an extension (residence and
commerce) to Venice. I call the project a “Champs Elysee for Venice”. At the Galleria
Massimo Minini in Brescia there are the drawings and the model of this project.

4. Water again: if there is no sufficient water for irrigation fields in the Laguna, it is always
possible to produce crops which need less water. (There exists food productions in arid
and semiarid countries, even with less water Venice is far from being “dry”)

5.Tourism is an industry, and many Venetians live by it. If there can be created more
residential spaces for people working in Venice (as mentioned in all the projects above)
the disproportion of tourists versus inhabitants would be reduced. I think to understand
that commuter population (working in Venice) is larger than the number of resident. It could
be a solution to make these commuters into real residents.
This is a short note for your questions. I wrote it down in a haste, but I hope it can be
useful. With lots greetings

YF

questions to yona friedman. LAB class marjetica potrc 'sustainable venice', IUAV, Venice 2010

The class 'Sustainable Venice' studies life and survival of Venice in

its environment Venetian Lagoon.

1.

The highlight of the class is construction of a real rainwater

harvesting system at a farm on St.Erasmo island, which is located in

the Lagoon not far from Venice. Rainwater will be collected from roofs

of 2 'seras' (2 green houses) and it will be used to irrigate the

vegetables that grow there. In this way the students get involved with

water as a natural resource (irrigation, drinking water) and learn

that existence of the farm as well as Venice depends on water. As the

Lagoon is sinking, the government of Venice plans to prohibit use of

water from underground aquifers to irrigate fields, threatening the

local food production and the existence of farmers. At the same time,

sea level of water is rising, threatening the existence of

Venice. Water, which used to be best friend of Venice, became an

enemy. How can we address water in Venice?

2.

Should everyone in Venetian Lagoon start collecting rainwater for

drinking water and irrigation?

3.

Since the development of the industrial area of Marghera and the

realization of Mose (2 large scale projects of 20th century), water in

Venice changed its role from a symbol of reunion, connection and

exchange to a symbol of separation, indifference and death. Maybe the

decision, taken in the 15th Century to keep the lagoon intact

artificially – by diverting rivers – instead of complying with its

natural transformation into land, had also an important role in

determining the decay of Venice. Conservatism won over innovation, the

artificial won over the natural. Can we envisage a future life for

Venice by recovering and rehabilitating nature?

4.

Shall Venice follow its course and naturally die, or shall Venice

survive again by means of artificial interventions?

5.

In 1960s you made drawings about future Venice. Do you think that the

Ville Spatiale could still be a good idea for Venice, or can you

develop other ideas about a sustainable Venice?

6.

Today, 60.000 residents live in Venice (loss of 2/3 of residents since

1950s). To this number is added more than 5.500.000 tourists per

year. When you talk about a realizable utopia that should be created by

inhabitants, do you think that Venice can be recovered by residents?

Can we think of Venice without tourists?

7.

Venice is built of heavy architecture on moving land. Is there another

constructing principle for living on and with the water?

8.

Venice is a densely built city. There are more than 600 empty

residential units owned by the Municipality that are left empty.

There is no will from the Municipality to remake them for

residents. At the same time, Municipality invests in large-scale

projects, such as Mose. How can we resolve this problem?

san pietro di castello 2

Hello everybody! Me and Chiara are still going on with lunches and snacks with people from san pietro...we had a fantastic lunch with some people from the class and some friends of Loris, our new friend, that has his atelier in the ancient baptister next to the big church in san pietro....it's so funny, and he has many hobbies to share with us. We met also in this fish lunch his friens, fishermen, good people....here you have some pictures! enjoy!

the lunch!












the lunch 2

Loris! and the cantara mantecata...

asticeee












the fish pot..

jef geys at venice biennale 2009

Some of you may remember about Belgian pavillion at the last Venice Biennale.

Here's a link about it:

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6761/jef-geys-belgian-pavilion-at-venice-art-biennale-09.html

This could be interesting for those of you that work on herbs.

See you!

lost in translation

Arte e Intercultura
Concorso per giovani artisti e istituzioni culturali sul tema della relazione fra le culture promosso da Connecting Cultures e Fondazione Ismu – Settore Educazione – Patrimonio e Intercultura

http://www.connectingcultures.info/main/?p=3460