How do you envision Venice in the future? Alberto Ferlenga, University IUAV

Alberto Ferlenga, Rector of the IUAV University in Venice for #RiscrivereilFuturo proposes to start again from Venice, a wise and sustainable city.

I imagine the Venice of the future as a ‘wise’ city, a real model for the world that is not only visited for the extraordinary beauty of its monuments, but also because it effectively shows sustainable models of life: an urban dimension on a human dimension, a good relationship with the environment, safety, pedestrianization, resilience, good conservation of spaces and buildings, an active life. A city of culture, universities, and work, as well as tourism. A sustainability model for other city projects.

Politics, institutions and citizens can do a lot, both by constantly improving the living conditions of the city and by working together on a new project that integrates different aspects with the common aim of giving strength and visibility to that articulated uniqueness that Venice has always had but not always promoted. Creating an international and unique laboratory of sustainable urban life at a time when many of the certainties on which the contemporary city was based on do no longer exist.

Environment: visiting Venice becomes an experiential opportunity to directly experience different life possibilities and a virtuous relationship with the environment and its transformations.

Residential: Promote the residency of students currently banned outside the historic centre and support that of the local people.

Work: Promote start-up and new entrepreneurship activities in collaboration with the local universities

Culture: Supporting, in general, the role of the University, Academy and Conservatory as promoters of the culture in Venice, a university city, indeed, the most beautiful university city in the world.

Security: Venice is already a safer city than many others and even in this epidemic it has shown that it knows how to react, thanks to its structure, and this too is a point to relaunch its image in the world.

Tourism: Making tourists more aware of what they visit through world campaigns and on site “guides” aimed at enhancing the history and nature of the places visited; to prepare them for the complexity of those aspects that a visit to Venice offers, to involve them in a worldwide ‘post-diffusion’ of the Venetian model of living.

Alberto Ferlenga, Rector of the IUAV University in Venice

For the #RiscrivereilFuturo project Venice Venezia da Vivere and Associazione Piazza San Marco have interviewed entrepreneurs, curators, cultural institution directors, university deans and teachers, hoteliers, event organizers and citizens, who live and work in Venice. An open debate with the citizens to create a city in harmony with the environment, work and its civitas.

Read the full interview here

The photos are by Settimo Cannatella, @seventhsoul, for Venezia da Vivere.