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Master’s Thesis 2021

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Cat. 2 [4]

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Manifest

The aim of the project is to incorporate the didactic potential of architecture so as to expose the falsity of reality. In order to achieve this, a critical activity has to be undertaken. According to Natalini, in architecture this has always been connected with the concept of utopia. Utopias are used not as instruments which should introduce a solution to certain problems, but rather as a way of determining the problem, uncovering it. Utopias incorporate a sense of hope. They, like art, anticipate a part of reality in their performances. They originate from the dissatisfaction with reality. They create a fiction, which is nothing more than a desire for a superior existence, an image of a perfect world or rather an exaggerated version of its deceitfulness. Thomas More clarifies that the word “utopia” can be derived either from the Greek word “eutopia”, which would mean “the good place”, or from “outopia”, meaning “no place”. This allows a broader reading of the term and encourages different interpretations, which could also lead to the creation of anti-utopias or negative utopias.

The project should incorporate the “guerrilla warfare” tactic of Superstudio, taking processes to their limit, showing per absurdum their falsity and immorality. Architecture should be used as a space for reflection, a space which will allow the radicalization of these processes. Venice, as a utopia per se, and her conflicts should generate a stage for the realization of this vision. The critique is to be generated against the practices which are taking place in the city that are undermining its existential purpose as a place to live in and turning it into a “museum of mass tourism”, a place which no longer belongs to the Venetians themselves, but to the “system of our consumerist society”. The project does not aim to introduce a solution or a way out of this mechanism but rather, in the manner of the utopian origin, to increase the sensibility, to accuse the “museumification” of the historic city, the idea of cultural heritage as a “resource” and the neglect of its inhabitants. In the end, it should provoke discussions about the impact of these processes on the future of the city.

Six Cautionary Tales About Venice

On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic

Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee;
And was the safeguard of the west: the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.
She was a maiden City, bright and free;
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And, when she took unto herself a Mate,
She must espouse the everlasting Sea.
And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay;
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid
When her long life hath reached its final day:
Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great is passed away.

William Wordsworth