Margherissima at Forte Marghera
Four days ahead of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition opening to the public, the Venice Architecture Biennale opened Margherissima, a Special Project at Forte Marghera in Mestre. The project, designed by Nigel Coates and students from the Architectural Association in London, imagines a postindustrial future for Marghera, an industrial area on the edge of the Venetian lagoon.
Given that Margherissima was the first part of the Biennale to officially open, a number of VIPs were at Forte Maghera on the morning of May 6, including the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, and Carlo Ratti, curator of this year's Biennale.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Ratti explained how Margherissima fits within the theme he devised for the exhibition—Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.—particularly the collective aspect, given the way students worked individually but also collaboratively, bringing their separate projects together into one whole. Ratti also said that architect Nigel Coates submitted the project through the Biennale's open call, which was set up last year to provide a bottom-up component for the exhibition.
Following Ratti's comments, AA director Ingrid Schroder spoke, calling the project a “space of imagination, a space of opening up of questions.” She then introduced Coates, “a provocateur and man of action,” who described the project in some depth. Our photos from the exhibition follow, with commentary from our impressions and some commentary from Coates.