Palazzo della Biennale - Venice
The last one of the three models that I wish to study is the Biennale in Venice. The article by Nicola Di Battista, "Biennale di Venezia: 10 architects for the new Cinema Hall at the Lido" (Domus issue no. 730), has played another strong role in the comparative process between the existing models and my personal interpretation of the events that melt together in the complex design of a Cinema Hall. The results of this recent international competition, gave me the opportunity and the further knowledge to recognise the general rules and some similar details that are comparable with the City of Dublin as well as Venice. The purpose of the competition was to re-design the Cinema Hall in a way to make it suitable not only for the Film Event but also for the other cultural activities that take place in the Italian city during the rest of the year. In other words, the idea was to design a big public complex that could be both the venue for the prestigious Cinema Exhibition, and a permanent structure for the needs of the city, but more than anything, a building that could deeply effect the transformation of the part of the city where it stands.The presence of water, the nature of the subject of the competition and all the reasons behind it, are a good part of my interest and curiosity to study any possible comparison between the Lido in Venice and the Grand Canal Basin in Ringsend.
From The article of Gian Luigi Rotondi: Venice was the first town in 1932 to have a Cinema festival and by 1937, after five years during which the venue was set in the Hotel Excelsior, Architect Luigi Quagliata had designed and built the Festival Hall. The building wasn't big but was very functional. It consisted of an auditorium, a few little screening rooms for the press and some offices placed in a sort of tower. The existing building was extended with some additional space in 1952 when a new facade was stuck to the front provisionally. Like many other provisional solutions in Italy, the new facade became permanent as it is today. After 40 years, as it happened in Cannes, in Venice also, the time has come to change again: more space is needed and more functional solutions to be found. As it is for Cannes, for Venice also, a festival and Convention Hall is a cardinal element in the city's vitality all year round. The Lido needs new facilities and they are likely to bring some new vitality to the city as it happened in Cannes, as will happen in Berlin and anywhere else where a Film Festival is set up.
Carlo Aymonino
The initial scheme evolved around a central axis that joined the two auditoria. A second draft brought to a more compact layout with a central core surrounded by the different functions. The decision to maintain the old auditoria as an "historic reminder" brought then to a third draft where the layout turned out to be asymmetrical and not symmetrical as originally planned. In the final proposal, a great deal of attention is devoted to public services. This means that the various activities are not relying on a single entrance and the several exterior - interior spaces are connected and crowned by the terrace for receptions overlooking the Adriatic sea and the Canal-side pier.
Mario Botta
The site of the competition is located between the sea in the front, the canal on the rear side the Via Candia on the left and the Casino on the right. This proposal lays out a building which volume runs parallel to the Casino's main axis. The two auditoriums form a separate structure between the two side constructions which create a link from the Casino to the Main street behind together with a central open area that works as foyer and central vertical passage to the above levels.
Sverre Fehn
The main idea behind this proposal is to get the building to equally relate to the distinctive features of the Adriatic and the Canal. The main entrance of the Palazzo is on the waterfront walkway.The ground floor becomes a vast circulation area inside the building. The project aims to reflect the sense of freedom that one feels when arrives at the lido form the maze of Venetian winding streets.
Marlies Hentrup - Norbert Heyers - James Stirling
This proposal reflects its multiple uses and is characterised by the possibility of hosting both minor and major events. The auditoriums can join to seat up to 3,0000 people and in conjunction with the roof terrace, up to 7,000. There are two different elevations to the asymmetrical building: one is festive, in the form of a zigzag screen running from the sea front to the canal giving an outdoor/indoor view. The other, and less important elevations are more solid and belong to the administrative and storage facilities.
Steven Holl
This proposal attempts a phenomenological link between architecture and cinema in the sense of the human experience in time, light, material and space. It offers three interpretations of time in light and space. The first one is 1) Collapsed and Extended Time within the screen of the cinema is expressed in the warp and extended weave of the cinemas in the section of the building. 2)Diaphanous Time has embodied in watery reflections of sunlight passing through fissures between the cinemas into the lagoon basin below. 3)Absolute Time is measured in a projected beam of sunlight which moves across the "Cubic Pantheon" in the lobby. In other words: light in space, light in reflection, light in shade. The actual Auditoriums are suspended across the two sides of the building and over the water basin artificially created between them.
Fumihiko Maki
A Glass Palace on water like a mirage of one's dream. A cinema town where the seven cinemas are connected by paths, ramps, steps, gardens, lounges and terraces which themselves originate a public gathering space for culture and social leisure. The building is also a link between two worlds: the sandy beaches of the lido and the gentle neighborhood of the canal. The transparent aspect is to remind somehow the ephemeral nature of Venice itself and the gentle light of a foggy dusk on the lagoon.
Rafael Moneo
The proposal by Rafael Moneo places the main entrance not to the sea side but towards Venice. The large canopy is both a shelter to the ramp that brings into the foyer and also an animated terrace adjacent to the bar and cafè areas from which is clear why the emphases has been focused on the important presence of Venice at the horizon. a lobby/courtyard takes the lead and protagonizes the space. The larger cinema, the bookshop and a small cafè, border this important architectural episode which is the core of the building.
Jean Nouvel
The result of a "survey" amongst the Festival goers in Venice, brought the designing team to the conclusion that the site where the Palazzo is and is to be, didn't give the impression of being in Venice at all. Moneo tries with this project to link together the Lido and its modern identity on one side and Venice with its ancient and non comparable beauty onto the other. The attempt leads to a result made with the old entrance reflected in the water, the gardens, the outdoor (but sheltered "upside down" theater that becomes the ceremonial stairs, the wooden pier. The auditorium too is Venice: an immense glazed wall that frames Venice before the show and then gets concealed by the screen. The terrace is dedicated to the reception area with the Adriatic sea on one side and the lagoon on the other.
Aldo Rossi
The project main objectives are to mintain the movie theater, have an open air theater on the roof and to be able to show the same film in the two auditoriums simultaneously. The result is the fusion of the building as a whole and the various parts that assemble it: the exsisting atrium and facade, the service towers and the office units.
Oswald M. Ungers
This proposal comprises two elements: one is a stone "E" shaped volume rising from a square, the other is a steel structure which helps give it the appearence of an enormous "machine" for holding conventions and performances that also recalls a shipyard. The compact layourt af these spaces ensures a rational construction of the great Hall making it economical to use and manage.
Andrea Zipoli z