How do you imagine Venice in the future? Sergio Pascolo, architect

#RiscrivereilFuturo (Rewriting the Future) of Venice for architect Sergio Pascolo is a vision of beauty where the extraordinary is normality and where normality is extraordinary.

Today we interview Sergio Pascolo, a Venetian architect and professor, who recently published “Venezia secolo ventuno. Visioni e strategie per un rinascimento sostenibile” (Anteferma Edizioni), an analysis of the destiny of Venice according to a vision of global urbanization and planetary development.

A book very closely aligned with #Riscrivereilfuturo, the debate opened by Venezia da Vivere and Associazione San Marco with leading figures from the worlds of economy, tourism, science, art, culture, universities, and craftsmanship who have actively shared their visions for the future of Venice.

How do you imagine Venice in the future?

A city that represents and promotes a sustainable, inclusive, and supportive lifestyle, founded on its thousand-year history and environmental innovation; a global campus city where studying, learning, teaching, and conducting research is a unique experience in the world; a city of the future because it is car-free, where people move on foot or via electric and hydrogen transport that connects the archipelago of islands and the mainland city in an efficient and sustainable system, ensuring high-quality accessibility for all.

A city of extraordinary naturalistic quality because it is immersed in an immense natural water park, the Lagoon, and surrounded by large woodlands on land.

A zero-impact city, powered 100% by renewable energy, contributing both symbolically and concretely to the fight against climate change; an open and welcoming city, a city at the crossroads of cultures that interprets and hosts all the arts of the world.

A city of craftsmanship with unique excellence in the world, a networked and polycentric city of land and water, connected to its territory and to the most advanced and innovative cities on the planet; a cluster city of sustainability and innovation, a cluster of solidarity and rights, a cluster of culture and art, a city of human intelligence, a port of ideas and knowledge.

A city where living is combined with beauty, harmony, and sustainability, and for this reason, one of the most attractive cities in the world: populous, dynamic, supportive, and culturally, socially, and economically flourishing. A city where the extraordinary is normality and where normality is extraordinary.

What can politics and citizens do for a rebirth of Venice?

Politics and citizens hold the life and future of the city in their hands. Citizens can and should choose to weave the future of the city for themselves and for future generations, thinking not only of the present but also of the future with foresight; they can do this by implementing convergent initiatives and through the choice of their representatives who stand for the city government.

Politics, for its part, must live up to the expectations of citizens for a perspective that is concretely achievable if there is the will to consider the project for the future as a necessary common good.

Venice also has the unique opportunity to count not only on its resident citizens but also on a large number of temporary citizens, “lovers” of the city throughout the world—people who live in, know, respect, admire, and inhabit the city temporarily but frequently and constantly; people who, in the presence of a coherent policy, could all contribute to a collective project of rebirth.

Many international institutions, starting with Europe, which through the Green Deal program supports the very sustainable development of which the lagoon city can become a symbol and spokesperson, would also stand alongside politics and citizens in pursuing this goal. Resident citizens, temporary citizens, and future citizens, local politics and international politics, united by a shared objective, can achieve a great deal.

Propose a specific idea in at least one of these areas: environment, housing, work, culture, security, tourism.

Environment, housing, and work are areas strictly correlated with each other: environmental quality not only determines the quality of life but can also generate work, and this in turn is the necessary condition to reverse the trend of depopulation and thus encourage residency.

Three ideas:

A first idea, specific to the environment, is suggested to us by history: as far back as 982, mills played an important role in the lagoon, relying on different currents and tidal ranges. Today, using the same principles, we can create totally clean and renewable energy for the city by studying a network of zero-impact submerged micro-turbines. Such a project would attract investments aligned with the goal of sustainable growth, as well as researchers, manufacturers, and installers; by creating new jobs, it would contribute to generating a new economy, consequently attracting new inhabitants.

A second idea that combines environment, work, and housing is the transformation of the Marittima into an inhabited port and a green lung in the western sector of the city.

The necessary adaptation of the cruise industry to the delicacy of the city and the lagoon ecosystem, which must exclude the return of Large Ships, offers a great opportunity for urban regeneration of the area currently occupied by immense parking lots.

That area can be transformed into an inhabited port, a living part of the city, with services and facilities for both passengers and citizens, commercial spaces dedicated to boating, spaces for artisanal production, spaces for sport and entertainment, new housing with innovative and affordable housing formulas, and large recreational green spaces serving the entire city and the university campus.

Such a project would involve a significant environmental improvement through the addition of green areas and vegetation, where people can walk, run, move, and breathe clean air; it would create new jobs in various sectors and, consequently, attract new inhabitants who would find housing at appropriate prices for different income brackets.

A third idea that combines culture with science and innovation, and all three with work and housing, is the creation of a Water Museum, conceived as a scientific and cultural research center that investigates and disseminates research on water both from a technological point of view and in its interactions with art, architecture, and the environment.

Such a facility would attract not only visitors but also researchers, scholars, and students; it would generate qualified jobs, consequently attracting new residents. In the Venice I imagine, such a structure could be born with resources from the international community, which would recognize Venice as a symbol for the entire world of sustainability and resilience, of harmony and balance.

Sergio Pascolo, architect.