40 METRES OF CARE. Learning and Working with the Lazzaretto Nuovo
40 METRES OF CARE. Learning and Working with the Lazzaretto Nuovo
As part of this year's International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the Liechtenstein contribution, titled 40 METRES OF CARE, is dedicated to Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venetian Lagoon. This island, historically used as a quarantine station, stands as an exemplar of an architecture of healing and is understood as a complex place of material and immaterial layers. Time and space here become essential points of reference for a responsible continuation of building within the existing fabric.
Parallel to the Biennale Sessions in the Arsenale, the practical work took place directly on Lazzaretto Nuovo. The students of the design studio 40 Metres of Care, Designing in a Cultural Context at the University of Liechtenstein documented and analysed the historic quarantine island of Lazzaretto Nuovo through an empathic survey, in collaboration with the Ecomuseo dei Lazzaretti Veneziani. This resulted in an archive of drawings, texts, photographs and found objects.
These recordings formed the foundation for the subsequent empathic design proposals for the main building, the Tezon Grande, and its landscape and historical context.
Under the guidance of Alberto Alessi and Barbara Ruech, the students experienced an experimental learning process that connects theory and practice: careful observation, collecting, transforming and interweaving. Lazzaretto Nuovo thus became a laboratory for empathy and an architectural attitude of TAKING CARE.
Participating students:
Muhammed Emre Kücük, Selina Meisser, Latisha Mitrovic, Maik Müller, Annika Leonie Nicolussi, Jakob Niggli, Maribel Piccon, Maria Luisa Sánchez Tholen, Valentina Scheurer, Ida Simma, Laura Stefanita, Linda Vith, Moritz Vogler.
With contributions from:
Roman Banzer, Jara Malevez, Ludovica Galeazzo, Britta Hentschel, Hansjörg Quaderer.
Photographs: Barbara Ruech, Alberto Alessi
