Island of Lido, Venice, Italy
A white carpet of Apricena stone, The Piazza del Cinema by Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini from C+S Architectus is an adaptive and accessible public square and park for the yearly cinema festival and year-round for the public.
After a declining role as one of the most sought-after seaside resorts in Europe, the site hosted an international competition for the new Cinema Festival Palace.
Starting a series of conversations with the locals, C+S Architects decided that the central aim of the design was to give back to the citizens a well-designed and adaptable public space made of a square and a park, which would be transformed during the three weeks of the Cinema Festival as well as throughout the year.
The task of the Piazza was also that of sewing together the heritage pieces (the two Palaces and the park), the latter being for C+S as important as the building as it would be home to animals and enrich the site’s biodiversity.
A carpet of white Apricena stone is laid among the buildings and the green spaces and is designed to highlight the curves of a never-built third building.
It is shaped to be accessible to all, as well as punctuated by precious insertions such as brass railings, special surface treatments, or gutters for water collection.
For its attention to aesthetic detail as well as sustainable practices, The Piazza del Cinema has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Instead of creating a Piazza only for the three weeks of the Festival, the Piazza del Cinema confirms and enhances the role of the park as a fundamental and consolidated element of the site, rich in biodiversity and home to different animal species.
The boundaries of the park are retraced on the geometry of the unbuilt building and turn the red carpet of the actors into a ‘white carpet’” for all people.
With this continuous public space made of monochrome Apricena stone, C+S aims to highlight the identity of the site as well as the splendor of the Belle Epoque and its generous dimensions.
The square is heightened from the original level to allow for a view of the sea and is entirely accessible and subtly designed for disabled and visually impaired people.
Sustainability solutions such as water collection and reforestation with local trees were employed.
The square is also constructed to allow the activation of events during the rest of the year. Thus it gives back a free public space to families with strollers, skaters, kids playing in the water fountain, and old people relaxing under the shadow of the trees and watching the sea.
Portions of the square are inconspicuously designed with thicker sections in order to be accessible to cars for special events.
The design of the materiality was chosen for its durability and resistance to the aggressive climate of the seaside.
The rolled or sanded pieces of the stone; the water drainage system and the fountain; the brass and varnished steel railings; the benches in reconstituted natural marble stone; the treatments for disabled and visually impaired people; the newly planted and autochthonous maritime pines and the sinuosity of the garden, resembling the geometry of the never-built third palace…
All these elements are designed as accents and shadows, vibrating in the light and changing every single moment of the day throughout the year.
“We are proud to have contributed to giving back to the citizens a part of the city. The architects strongly believe in the power of a free, well-designed public domain to be activated by people, their memories, their dreams, and their experiences,” state Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini of C+S Architects.
Project: Piazza del Cinema
Architects: C+S Architects Ltd.
Lead Architects: Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini
General Contractor: Sacaim SpA and Rizzani de Eccher
Structures: Iconia and Saico
Client: Venice Municipality
Photographers: C+S Architects Ltd.
