The emphasis of this workshop was to produce a theory of reprogramming for future modes of inhabitation based on new collective, aesthetic and political forms that depart from contemporary obsolete models. Under the tag of "social condensers" an urban strategy and an architectural prototype was envisioned with its central focus within Porto Marghera - but always within a global context in mind.

 

Under the guidance of Eva Franch I Gilabert (the director of the Storefront for Art and Architecture and the head of OfficeUS), during this three-week intensive workshop, our group developed Protamination, which is the inhabitation of the lands of change in Porto Marghera. These series of pavilions act either to mediate or exacerbate their site differential.

 

The Pavilion of Bridgenergy

This pavilion is an agent to connect the sporadic public spaces of Marghera and the extremely privatised spaces of industry. It is a place for the transparent exchange of ideas about how our economies, industries and energies operate. The pavilion is also an interactive and autonomous generator of kinetic, hydro, solar and other developing energy prototypes that will feed Marghera.

 

The Pavilion of Cleansity

Via Fratelli Bandiera is a threshold of health. The pavilion upon this threshold mediates the transition between work and home for the 11,800 employees that work in the area. It is a space for the research and treatment of physical, mental and spiritual contamination. The heat energy generated by the workers and machinery throughout the day will be captured by ventilation systems, transferred and stored in the pavilion. The heat differential will then be converted into electrical energy to provide energy for the homes.

 

The Pavilion of Spreation 

The pavilion bridges two areas — ones in use and ones in disuse. This Library of Everything is a transitional path where via the borrowing of an object (a tool, a food, a furniture, an idea), the disused spaces and modern architectural ruins of Marghera becomes used. It creates spaces for co-working in all fields from upcycling workshops to geo-political consortiums.

 

The Pavilion of Farmacy

Following the imminent expiration of oil use and the growing shortage of global food supplies, the pavilion occupies the thirteen silos and functions as a public gallery and working laboratory for the hyperproduction of food. Differing levels of enclosure (from open air farming to unlit experimental synthetic agriculture) inform the arrangement of the site and the journey of the visitor.

 

Together, the pavilions operate as a sequence of follies, to begin to reorganise the disarray of Porto Marghera. As these follies insinuate new paths, the grid will expand with more pavilions, to protaminate across Porto Marghera.

 

 

Team Members: Andrea Canova // Cristina Giambri // Martina Girardi // Sofia Marchesini // Plini Roessler-Holgate // Demas Rusli