“We are proud to have contributed to give back the citizens a part of the city. We strongly believe in the power of a free, well-designed public domain to be activated by people, their memories, their dreams and their experiences.”
With these words Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini, who founded C+S Architects studio, explain their redevelopment project for the Piazza del Cinema of Venice, designed to sew together the elements which create the identity of the site.
The historic and listed buildings of the Venice Cinema Festival Palace and the Casino Palace have been connected with a white, continuous stone-made public space, which aims to enhance the dimension of the former historic public domain and bring back the memory of the splendour of the Belle Epoque; the square is heightened from the original level to allow the view of the sea and is entirely designed using the monochrome Apricena stone, which underlines the strengths of the dimension of the public space.
The continuity of the monochrome materiality is enhanced by the rolled or sanded pieces of the stone, the water drainage system and the fountain- designed as thin cuts and shadows on the white surface of the stone, the brass or varnished steel railings.
In addition, the benches in reconstituted natural marble stone, the newly planted and autochthonous maritime pines and the sinuosity of the garden are designed as a symbol of a third building which was meant to complete the square but was never built.
Finally, the square, designed on the aim to serve the Venice Cinema Festival, is invisibly infrastructured to potentially allow the activation of events during the day and the whole year.
Keyword: multifunctionality.
