Certainly, Venice is one of the most fascinating places in the world, not only in urban and architectural, but also in social terms. Formerly a powerful metropolis, today Venice is one of the biggest non-places on earth - a place only temporarily inhabited: by global tourists and cultural enthusiasts mostly staying for only a day; by seasonal workers employed in the tourist industry; by students who after their studies in Venice move elsewhere due to a lack of job perspectives; by homeless expelled from public space, leading a shadowy existence as street vendors. Even Venetians, long since a minority in their own city, are on the run, fleeing from horrendous real estate prices - in the last sixty years, the historical city of Venice lost 65% of its inhabitants. Today, Venice is a gigantic transitory space that due to its multicultural communities is an outstanding symbol of globalization, yet paradoxically deeply rooted in clichés of the past.
After all, Venice is the place of the most important architecture exhibition worldwide - the "Biennale Architettura". "Reporting from the Front", this year's motto, poses the question how architecture could improve the quality of everyday life. Could this question be relevant for Venice, too? And where are the fronts of Venice one could report from?
It seems to be evident that the current social fault lines of Venice run alongside the parallel societies frequenting Venice today. The fronts of Venice thus may be assumed to be the places where people meet physically, but not socially - places of departure and arrival, at the interface between the front and the backstage of tourist industry, at the borderline between the exceptional and the ordinary, between sights and places out of sight.
Is architecture able to play a relevant role in this context? Could architecture create spaces that would transform Venice from a transitorial space to a place of home? How could these places of home be formulated for the varying needs - from the lodging for one night, to the accommodation for the season, to the home for an entire life? Can their re-interpretation create synergies and added value? How can architecture challenge existing economies of housing and take a position towards issues of availability and affordability? For these and other questions, concrete answers shall be found at the design studio "Reporting from Venice: Housing".
Relating to the issues raised at the "Biennale Architettura" 2016, selected sites will be researched at a one-week excursion and workshop in Venice (24.-29.10.2016). Design approaches shall further be elaborated in two one-week intensive design studios at the TU Vienna and presented in January 2017. The design course takes place together with the design courses "Reporting from Venice: Transport" und "Reporting from Venice: Communities".
