Traditional Construction Wisdom : an Integrated Experiment in Venice

Since its origins Venice has had to adapt to hostile environmental conditions, such as unstable soil, requiring particular foundation techniques and construction devices to prevent structural damage. The high tides, the salty atmosphere from the sea and the rising damp have always been urging the creation of sea-and-earth defences against water. Thus the local building materials and construction techniques are the result of a thousand-year war against the decaying processes, trusting on the capabilities of the Venetian craftsmen, the only ones who were experienced enough to make buildings comply with such a hard and everchanging environment. At the end of the nineteenth and during the twentieth century tourism became one of the factors of a big urban and architectural renovation. New materials were adopted, both to protect the facades or to counter rising damp, so new technologies were applied to create barriers against the overflowing tide. However, few efforts have proved to be completely efficient or long lasting. This is the main reason of a workshop, which is now in progress and developing as an integrated experiment between the Iuav University of Architecture and the Venice Craftsmen Association, bringing theory and practice together in order to train the next generation of architects, as well as passing on some traditional skills. Bringing craftmanship and a sensitive use of materials back into use is not so much an ideological issue but a way to take efficaciously care of the Heritage. Protecting the material authenticity of Venice is one of the most important concerns in itself and an essential requisite for a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Preserving the material culture, and resurrecting the intangible "know-how" it embodies, is also a meaningful way to connect past and future, within current projects.