Water and asphalt : the project of isotropy

This book is the outcome of the ‘Water and Asphalt. The Project of Isotropy’ research study, begun in 2005 and coordinated by Bernardo Secchi and Paola Viganò, and which was first exhibited at the X Architecture Biennale of Venice, 2006. The research was first published in articles, as well as in workshop publications, and is finally collected here in one fluid narrative. Many people have contributed to this research, including PhD students from the Università IUAV di Venezia (IUAV University of Venice) PhD program in Urbanism, Masters and Bachelor students, researchers, pro- fessors, and experts from both the university and those outside of the academic context, including hydraulic and transport engineers, ecologists, landscape architects, architects, and urbanists. Hence, the book is a ‘reflective’ collection of materials and texts, an anthology that has reorganized and reformulated existing materials, seeking to clarify an overall hypothesis — the possibility of imagining a project extended to the requalification of the territories of settlement dispersion and diffusion; a project on a territorial scale that utilizes the specific characteristics of this space, taking into consideration its recent dynamics; a project imagined in a context of economic, social, and environmental crisis, in which many phenomena have become radicalized, causing the emergence of a new urban question. The plain of the Veneto Region is criss-crossed by dense water and road networks, forming different patterns on the dry and the wet plain and, well-connected, they still offer a clear image of a territory where prevailing directions are not immediately recognizable. To indicate the principal character- istics of a possible project for this territory, the research study uses the term ‘project of isotropy’.