< back

Tramway terminal in Venice

description
Concept design, final and detailed proposal

The western part of Venice was transformed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, by interventions undertaken with the goal of modernizing the city. The railway bridge connecting Venice Island with the mainland as well as the large factory buildings not only converted the area into a space for technical equipment and machines, but also created a scale in Venice itself that was radically different from that of the traditional urban space defined by the historic buildings of the city. The large Piazzale Roma was planned particularly in response to the construction of the new bridge,built alongside the railwayto connect cars from the mainland to the city, in the years 1932-33. This new space occupied part of the Papadopoli gardens, which were in turn divided into two parts with the opening of the Rio Novo.

Although it was long characterized by the presence of the important garage designed by the rationalist architect Eugenio Miozzi, Piazzale Roma has not maintained a stable and durable appearance over the years. Instead, it became the site for several competitions and some redirection of the traffic circulation, until it reached the recent configuration, when the arrival of the new tramway line Venice – Mestre was placed on the middle of the space.

In this area, widened and predominantly characterized by functional elements, several architectural structures have appeared over the last decade, characterized by a strong urban identity. These include the Constitution Bridge (by Calatrava), and the large space of the Justice district on the site of a 19th century tobacco factory complex.

 

In this complex space, thus characterized by an incremental development over a period of 200 years, our project recognized the need to both provide and define an organizational element. The project was the construction of shelter on the new median tramway platform for travelers waiting to get on the tram. The element should not only be characterized by its horizontal size, but should also be able to define a waiting space, through the design of an apparently suspended volume. In short, it should be a sort of outdoor room. Thus, the element is a rectangular prismatic steel beam, 32.50 m long, supported by a single central pillar. Inside the hollow parallelepiped are all of the technological signage elements, while the exterior is covered with steel plates, powder painted matte in a dark shade.In the evening, the element defines a very bright environment to guide the streams of commuters, while on the top, from outside, three light elements, mutually regulated by precise proportional relationships, give a measure to the open space.

 

With this project, MAP Studio won the Italian Architect Award 2018. The award recognized our ability to operate in a complex context with an elegant and measured contemporary language that speaks of technological research and study of detail. The project also stimulates reflection on the importance of the public space project which includes the infrastructures in which a public function becomes a measure and orientation element in space.