2006 – Museum Bridge _ Venice Italy

 

 
Program a footbridge and a museum about Venice history
Floor area 1000 m2
Place replacement of the Academy Bridge, Large Channel, Venice, Italy
Owner Arquitectum

General Principles To respect Venice environment, while proposing an original and new museum, a take-off… A transparent bridge gives access to a museum under the channel.
 

An asymmetrical glass bridge (idea of a take-off) makes it possible to cross water in every direction.
- Along the channel by boat
- Walking from a bank to the other: The crossing is done first by taking an elevator (or stairs) which leads us to a public garden on roofs level, then by naturally descending along the footbridge towards the other bank (or conversely).
- Or ‘walking’ vertically to go down in the town depths, under the channel. The visitor crosses the water surface to penetrate in a museum which contains the history of Venice.

A cafeteria offers a point of view on the channel surface level. The visitor is one meter under water. He thus takes benefits of an original sight on boats.

Transparency is an important point of the project. Every emerged part is made of glass or structural glass. Submerged parts are made of translucent concrete. They offer some light variations inside.

It is possible to create a vertical smoke screen in echo with the horizontal water screen (channel surface). It would mask the space located after the bridge. That way, those screens are doors to two different time-spaces : the one to present time, to go on discovering the city, the other to past time to enter in the city history, the depth of Venice.