Pila 40 Studios

On Friday, 5 October the post-industrial building at via della Pila 40, in Marghera, was opened up to the public, offering anyone interested the opportunity to visit the building and see the art, architecture and design studios which now occupy it. The idea of the event was to give visibility to the vibrant and rich, yet not very well known, creative talent of Porto Marghera which has emerged in the past ten years. With the collaboration of the Commune di Venezia, Assessorato all'ambiente, Città Sostenibili, and in conjunction with the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, the building and studios were open through the evening, accompanied by food, beer and music, including the DJ set's of William Bottin and Free SB.

What exists today at Pila 40 was constructed by the Pasqualetto brothers. The history of the building began in 1920, when the family arrived to Marghera during the first phase of industrialization. The building was originally used as a stable to house and transport horses, and then later used to transport operative machinery specialized for civil and industrial reclamation and demolition. Since the 1990's Guido Pasqualetto, along with his children Raffaele, Anna, Cristina and Amedeo began the conversion of the space into a different type of use, a container of creativity. They transformed the former warehouses into studios ideally suited for young and emerging artists and designers.

What remains is an industrial building evoking Modernism, made of steel, concrete and glass and composed of three rectangular masses organized into a u-shaped plan around a central courtyard space. The external walls enclose the internal space from the immediate urban context, but are simultaneously opened by tall glass windows on the upper floors providing spectacular views overlooking Marghera. Through the use of a reinforced concrete structural system, the internal façade is strikingly light. The internal strip windows and balconies flood the interior spaces with light, creating optimal working spaces for creative purposes.

Pila 40 currently houses internationally renowned creative professionals from a diverse range of creative types, including artists, designers, graphic designers, and architects. Close to the street entrance is CZ Studio Associati, an established landscape architecture firm working on the transformation of complex urban spaces, parks, and infrastructure. Occupying the central space on the ground floor is Agile, an alternative wholesale and retail toy seller who uses the space as a warehouse for his collection of balloons, kites, boomerangs, and yo-yos. Above the central building office on the first floor is the Latitude-Platform Studio, a Belgium-Italian non-profit association for interdisciplinary urban research and design.

The first floor of the main building houses Corde Architetti an architectural firm collaborating with industrial designers, architects and regional planners and the studio of Arthur Duff, a German-born American artist whose work is focused on the elements of light, language, and motion and the movement of the body through space.

The architectural studio Amistadi/Mayr Architetti occupies the second floor, whose work focuses on developing architectural and urban form through the means of three-dimensional physical modelling. Next is the studio of Luca Massimo Barbero, an internationally known scholar and critic of modern and contemporary art, and associate curator of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Then there is the studio of Francesco Candeloro, whose work focuses on the intimate and subtle effects of changes of light in time and space. At the end of the corridor is Zaven, a graphic and product design firm focusing on the relationship between communication, design and art. On the top floor are It.Works srl and Labìt Architetti Associati, two related design studios focusing on experimental design and coordination of exhibition, commercial and showroom spaces.

Pila 40 is just one example of its type. There are many similar sites in the area, creating a map of creativity in the once flourishing industrial core of Marghera. The open-studios event demonstrated this creativity to the public, thereby connecting Marghera within the creative milieu amidst Venice, and stimulating Marghera's ongoing process of renewal and development. Nadia D'Agnone