MARGHERISSIIMA Venice 2025

A special project for 19th Biennale di Architettura 2025, curated by Carlo Ratti

FORTE MARGHERA daily except Mondays until 23rd November 2025

Margherissima presents a speculative project to shape a new ‘smart’ neighbourhood on 44 hectares of derelict land in the south-east corner of the vast area of Marghera, home to the one of the busiest ports in Italy. It visualises an eclectic combination of buildings that encourage working and living side by side, and as a microcosm of Venice itself interpreted in a post-industrial bricolage sensibility.

'Consider this a "what-if" project propelled by collective imagination. Here is the premise: Marghera must change. Its degenerate reputation has to take an upswing. It must embrace social change as well as climate change. Enter Margherissima, a wide-angled vision based on a substantial parcel of contaminated land known as I Pili. Following a giant clean-up, how might it host a modern addition to the lagoon? Blending Venice itself with its industrial past, the dedicated team at the AA propose a vibrant neighbourhood sitting cheek-by-jowl with the soaring silhouettes of heavy industry.

Though achingly serene and the apogee of all cities, Venice itself continues to depopulate. Even the acqua alta fails to mitigate over-tourism. Despite its boundless cultural capital, fresh minds in Venice inevitably seek their fortunes elsewhere. This speculative project tackles this conundrum head on – with a piece of smart city where young Venetians might actually want to live.

Yet at the expense of Venice, Marghera continues to be very much alive. The port alone handles €6.5billion of goods per year. Giant cruise ships sail in and out. Marghera needs to reduce its carbon footprint. The old petrochemical complex has been reborn as Europe’s first biorefinery. Start-ups creep in here and there. A slow urban transformation is underway, but we are far from any new dawn.

Hence the AA’s indicative Margherissima project centred on I Pili, the controversial wasteland that frames the beginning of the Ponte della Libertà on its trajectory towards Venice. In characteristic spirit, the AA channels its collective intelligence into an installation at Forte Marghera, close to the site under investigation. And the venue for this endeavour? The old gunpowder store in the Forte Marghera.

Inside, the first section of the exhibition introduces the lagoon as a sensitive environment where land meets water in a unique ecology, disrupted only by toxic commercial remnants that must eventually be tackled. Next, a scale model of the fortress includes recycled silos on our forecourt. Finally, the centrepiece is a giant model of I Pili laid out as a model town – complete with squares, alleyways and canals, its campanile, its ateliers, its schools, bohemian bars and sinewy parks, all against the shadowy backdrop of the biorafinery and the expansive horizon of the lagoon.

Through a methodology of continuous workshops, the project coalesces the tough language of the chemical works with the enduring vocabulary of Venetian architecture, tailored by water. Individual buildings appear as models – each collaged from scavenged objects or handmade in glass, bronze or ceramic. It synthesises a deliberate, bricolage sensibility suggesting constant transformation and adaptable programmes for living and working.

Instead of an impossible dream, Margherissima evokes Venice-Marghera as it might be. Rather than a solution, it is a provocation; an inspiration. Neither utopia nor suburb, it formulates an exemplary slice of city shaped around its occupants. It has high standards and an even higher threshold of belief in the inherent invention people find in their lives if only given the space to do so.'

Contributors:

Twelve students from units in the AA’s Intermediate and Diploma Programmes, graduates from across the school, and collaborators and advisors from outside the school.

STUDENTS INCLUDE:

Yesemin Cengic, Laura Hepp, Béné Jakel, Maximilian Hohi Hyde, Taewoo Kim, Henry Morgan, Or Naeh, Selin Öktem, Yuval Steinberg, Pelin Tamay, Nurshafika Talib, Kitty Tsoi, Miharu Yamaguchi

PROJECT COORDINATION:

James Emery, Sheer Gritzerstein, Hiroaki Yamane

GRADUATES INCLUDE:

Aviv Amiel, Bryan Chee, Daria Cheremisina, Zhuo Chen, Lei Freddie Jiang, Yeon-Kyu Lee, Deri Russell, Hosein Shahhoseini , Peixuan Hailey Zhang`

FOR THE AA:

From the outset, the project won the support of AA Director Ingrid Schroder, Head of International Development Christopher Pierce, Diploma Unit 10 Tutor Carlos Villanueva Brandt, and the entire making and communication machinery at the AA.

CONTRIBUTORS AND ADVISORS:

The wider team includes Guan Lee, Jessie Lee and Nigel Tucker of Grymsdyke Farm (where a large proportion of the work was produced), Michael Keverne from Buro Happold engineers, collective intelligence consultant Jan Bunge, film director John Maybury, artist Paolo Canevari, fashion designer Charles Jeffrey, artist Madelon Vriesendorp, light artist Moritz Waldemeyer, Roberta Meloni at Poltronova in Florence, Adriano Berengo at Berengo Studio in Murano, Jane da Mosto of We Are Here Venice, photographer Francesca Lotti, and Nigel Coates Studio team including Paolo Cicatiello and Maria Cicirello. Thanks to Amina Chouaïri for consultation.

The exhibition was designed by (Ab)normal studio, Milan.

Everything was co-ordinated for La Biennale by Emilia Bonomi and Marco Santini. Thanks are also due to Stefano Mondini who is President of the Forte Marghera Foundation