Venetian Vitrification

Glass Art Complex
Venice, Italy

Located in a current gap in the continuous boundary of Venice, Venetian Vitrification takes inspiration from the winding streets of the city and the physical transformation of silica sand to glass. The project is a series of linear volumes that slide into the lagoon, creating a singular landmark that recalls surrounding urban compression-expansion patterns.

The glass production programs (the glass blowing studios and their supporting spaces) are expressed as heavy, enclosed volumes that divide the site into an urban campo to the east and gardens to the west. The social and display programs (trattoria, restaurant, and galleries), meanwhile, are light, airy, double-skinned wooden pavilions. The mass of the wall has been hollowed out with an eccentric roof enclosure mimicking the physical structure characteristic of glass, an amorphous solid that does not maintain a regular crystalline structure.