The New Venice

If you've ever been to Venice you understand how absolutely gorgeous the city is and how much history (and water) it contains. Venice is one of my favorite cities in Italy.....and probably the easiest to get lost in too! At the beginning of school this semester I did a project on the future of Venice and what would happen if the city completely flooded. My professor recently found a post online about self-repairing architecture and the new metabolic materials that could save Venice. Check out some blurbs below. What to read more? Rachel Armstrong's essay for Next Nature Self-Repairing Architecture.

"Metabolic materials are a technology that acts as a chemical interface or language through which artificial structures such as, architecture, can connect with natural systems... materials that belong to a new group of technologies being described as ‘living technology’, which possess some of the properties of living systems but are not considered ‘alive’... Metabolic materials will challenge the assumptions that we have about architectural building processes and since they require water for their development they are likely to be useful in areas with repeated flooding or in urban areas that are lower than sea level or, as in the case of Venice, have a complex relationship with the sea. Protocell technology could stop the city of Venice sinking on its soft geological foundations by generating a sustainable, artificial reef under the foundations of Venice and spreading the point load of the city."

[Venice back in 2007 on my trip to Italy]

[Future Venice, rendering by Christian Kerrigan]