How can site planning techniques inform a design strategy for a large construction staging area in a sensitive environment while responding to the risks of climate change?
The MOSE project includes multiple interventions to address flooding in the lagoon, but the largest is a system of mobile floodgates designed to isolate the lagoon from the Adriatic sea during acqua alta high tides. A man-made platform at Malamocco was the site of construction of massive concrete casons and storage of the floodgates for nearly 10 years. In the spring of 2019, Mary Anne Ocampo led an urban design practicum to explore potential reuse strategies for the construction staging site for the MOSE (MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, Experimental Electromechanical Module) project at the Malamocco inlet of the Venetian lagoon. After a site visit, research, analysis and synthesis, teams of students in the practicum developed three design proposals for the 300 by 450 foot platform. Elizabeth Haney and Mary Hannah Smith developed a conceptual proposal entitled “Resilience in Reuse.”
This design idea brings together flood resiliency and tourism in a novel way. Tourism dominates the platform in the near future, but cedes space to resiliency efforts as the environment changes. Resilience in Reuse is structured around the notion that different activities can share space, and that existing forms can be re-purposed for new uses as the need arises. In the short term, the site can be used for tourism and events. Though the impacts on the lagoon are still uncertain, Climate Change will impact Pellestrina and likely lead to increased risk of flooding. In the long term, the site can easily transition to a base for flood disaster response and recovery operations. The short-term uses provide new economic opportunity to the island, while long-term maintenance of the platform ensures islander resiliency in the face of an uncertain future. In addition to the concrete platform, existing assets like MOSE gates and CVN activity could be incorporated into future uses. This design idea provides a venue to celebrate Venice’s history of coastal defense and defiance of flooding.
