Venice Gateway: Gehry’s first project in Italy

Venice, to be exact Marco Polo airport in Tessera (the third largest in Italy), will be the site of the first work in Italy to be designed by Frank O Gehry: the gateway from the airport leading to the lagoon and the historic city centre. In visual terms, the whole design of Venice Gateway plays on the notion of the sea and navigation – sails filled with wind or supported by timber elements which resemble masts. Alongside this are the curved surfaces which characterise Gehry’s architecture, which in this case reflect the light of Venice at the point where the lagoon and land meet. The terminal will contain shops, restaurants, a five star hotel for 350, entertainment areas and a large conference and exhibition centre covering 9200 square metres. It will be situated in an area on the edge of the lagoon, connected to the new station and a new car park via a covered walkway which leads to a small piazza paved in stone and concrete, from which the hotel is accessed. The overall design reflects the architectural character of the city, with the physical relationship between the buildings and the water. As such the hotel, split into two “arms” which symbolically open onto the water of the lagoon and onto the city in the background, uses a series of bridges set in the glass to connect the two wings together; the bridges cross over the “gateway” and form a structure to which is fixed the glazing and wooden frame clad in metal which covers the terminal. The water of the lagoon also runs under the hotel and the hall to the west forming an internal canal which connects the exhibition and conference centre to other future buildings with water. The effect is intended to be that of a sense of floating on the water of the terminal, with a view onto the lagoon, the landing stages, the airport and the city of Venice in the background. In the area under the hotel building, which rises up around seven metres – the ticket office has been inserted for the landing stage, together with waiting areas and shopping areas towards the east. The structure which covers the canal is in timber, inspired by the arsenal and clad in metal recalling modern materials used in aviation.

Metal, glass and render are the materials used for the exhibition and conference centre. The main hall has a large metal roof similar to that of the existing airport buildings which creates the backdrop to the corridors and smaller meeting rooms which face onto the new piazza. It is a flexible space which can hold up to 2400 people in a single conference room and 1000 for banquets.

By December – announced Enrico Marchi, president of the company which manages Marco Polo – the design will be presented to the commission for safeguard and Enac, after which it will move into the working drawings stage. Venice gateway should be built over two or three years, with a cost expected to reach around 80 million euro, most of which will come from self financing on the part of Save (the Venice airport management company).

The restyling of Fiandre’s historic headquarters

Technology meets aesthetics, with Cordivari

Venice Gateway: Gehry’s first project in Italy

The restyling of Fiandre’s historic headquarters

Technology meets aesthetics, with Cordivari

Latest on Architecture

Latest on Domus