Lost Islands

The workshop „Lost Islands“ looks at the islands of the Venetian Lagoon as forgotten landscapes and settlement; it draws strategies for the islands as human-nature interfaces, the islands are seen as spaces of opportunities for design and culture innovations, and aggregators of social and also economic perspectives. „Lost Islands“ aims at a refreshed role of rural territories in metropolitan hybrid spaces. With this focus the workshop draws connecting lines to the questions raised by the Architecture Biennale curated by Alejandro Aravena, „Reporting from the Front“, in concepts, approaches and tools of architecture and urbanism in a social inclusive dimension. The lagoon as actual periphery, almost separated from the very complex urban flows and islands of Venice, thus forms a highly challenging space for innovation and design impulses. The international workshop „Lost Islands“ has been organised by Leibniz Universität Hannover, Chair for Regional Building and Urban Planning, in cooperation with with Politecnico di Milano, Architettura Urbanistica Ingegneria delle Costruzioni, and with students from Università Iuav di Venezia; it was part of the Sessions programme of the XV International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The additional university installation „L‘isola che non c‘è“ at S. Geremia in Venice transformed a generic transport boat into an island for one day - as stage for design utopias, with discussions, interviews, research and creation on board, addressing the islands of the lagoon as stages of metropolitan futures.