How do you imagine Venice in the future? Emma Ursich, Generali’s The Human Safety Net Foundation

Emma Ursich, General Secretary of Generali’s The Human Safety Net Foundation qualifies Venice as the world capital of sustainability, synthesis between international connection and quality of life, a new “smart city”.

#RiscrivereilFuturo di Venezia is a project  created by Venezia da Vivere and Associazione Piazza San Marco where we’ve interviewed entrepreneurs, curators, museum directors, university rectors, hoteliers, event organizers and citizens, who live and work in Venice. An open debate with citizens to create an idea of ​​a city in balance with the environment, work and its civitas.

Today we are interviewing Emma Ursich, General Secretary of Generali’s The Human Safety Net Foundation.

How do you imagine Venice in the future?

We can’t think of the future of Venice if not starting from its resilience over time that derives not only from the singularity of the lagoon environment but also from the ability of its community to equip itself with collaboration and adaptation mechanisms throughout its millennial history.

On the one hand, the crisis has accelerated the digitization of necessity, on the other, the rediscovery of the local solidarity networks and neighborhood shops. Many cities today are wondering how to review the everyday life of work, community life, transport and leisure. Venice can be a model of synthesis between international connection and quality of life, attractive also for new generations, different from the standards of megacities, a new idea of ​​”smart city”.

Today I also imagine Venice as an international laboratory, a place of life, a meeting place and a debate for being sustainable, a world capital of sustainability as proposed by our Group CEO Philippe Donnet, demonstration of this resilience and a renewal of which the world, now more than ever, needs.

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

The result we must aim for it is a sum where everyone, large and small actors, public and private, can contribute to creating shared value for the benefit of the community of Venetians and the future of Venice. For our part, we continue our efforts in this direction.

We collaborated with the Venice Gardens Foundation for the restoration and reopening of the Royal Gardens. The work on the construction site in Piazza San Marco, which will become the future home of our global foundation The Human Safety Net, has resumed. We continue to work to offer Venetians and visitors the opportunity to relive the Old Procuratie, to share the values ​​and social activities of the Foundation, to contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable world. I believe that this new space that will be born, together with the other active realities in the Marciana area, can promote sociality, in everyday life, being a permeable and open space for the city, a place for meeting, dialogue and work.

Do you want to propose a specific idea for one of these areas: environment, housing, work, culture, safety, tourism?

Thinking about Piazza San Marco, and looking up also towards the island of San Giorgio and the Cini Foundation of which we are partners, I see the opportunity to create a network between institutions, museums, clubs, associations active in the social media, between open spaces and closed spaces, to offer a quality and welcoming experience not only for visitors but also for the inhabitants, stimulate the use of new spaces for people, the creation of new paths and experiences, new areas of research and collaboration in order to trace – each with their own contribution and skills – a sustainable future for the city.

Emma Ursich, Secretary General, The Human Safety Net Foundation, Generali.

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Photo credits by Settimo Cannatella, @seventhsoul, for Venezia da Vivere.