Festival dell'architettura

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Abstract
This article outlines the experience of the summer workshops at the IUAV and investigates the reasons that underlie the success of this educational initiative founded in 2002. Such event, which concludes the school year, marks a time of great openness for aspiring young architects: 30 workshops with about 1,800 students from the three-year Architecture Course. The workshops are directed by architects from all over the world and from different generations and backgrounds. The idea is still that of making the attractiveness of Venice interact with the specificity of a school of Architecture like the IUAV in a form of educational experiment.

The IUAV Summer Workshops were first held in 2002 as a result of an initiative by the then Director of the Faculty of Architecture, Carlo Magnani. From the start, the formula adopted has always been different to that of the many other workshops that are organised, regularly or occasionally, in many universities around the world. Firstly, the scale makes them almost unique: 30 workshops with about 1,800 students from the three-year Architecture Course working in mixed groups (for example, Year 1 students together with students from Year 3). Participation in this intensive event is an essential part of students’ coursework and earns them credits, but it is by no means the fact that the workshops are compulsory that makes them the most eagerly awaited experience for a IUAV student. Taking place at the end of the academic year, they provide an opportunity for young, aspiring architects – most of whom have yet to participate in the Erasmus Programme – to appreciate diverse approaches to architectural design.

The workshops are directed by architects from all over the world and from different generations and backgrounds. Their presence over three weeks provides IUAV students with a new outlook, allowing them to perceive, through practical design activities, a great variety of languages from the current panorama of architecture, as well as preparing them for study experiences abroad. The exchange of ideas also takes place on several levels. Guest architects interact not only with the students, but also with each other as well as with the IUAV lecturers participating in the event. In this way, the study days are wholly dedicated to architecture, articulated by the alternating rhythms of workshops, site visits, model making, and by the programme of seminars which are a daily appointment for all participants and the IUAV community as a whole.

In the thirteen editions of the Summer Workshops, during which the management passed from Carlo Magnani to Giancarlo Carnevale who took over as Director of the Faculty of Architecture, some of the world’s best-known architects have come to Venice. The long and impressive list includes Pritzker prizewinners such as Edoardo Souto de Moura, world-famous architects such as Alejandro Aravena, Javier Corvalán, Solano Benítez, Francis Kéré, Max Dudler, Carme Pinós, Sean Godsell, and master architects such as Pancho Guedes, Yona Friedman, Antonio Monestiroli, and emerging talents such as TYIN tegnestue, Clinica Urbana, etc.

The formula of the workshops, which are now known as ‘Wave’, has undergone only minor changes over the years. The idea is still that of making the attractiveness of Venice interact with the specificity of a school of Architecture like the IUAV in a form of educational experiment. This can be extremely useful to the students’ development: while they are immersed in an international scenario in which they can verify the level and value of their training, they can be ‘contaminated’ by the energy and passion generated by working with a large number of young (and not so young) architects.

During the three weeks of the Wave workshops, the Santa Marta campus where they are held resembles a festival of architecture. Unlike other events billed as architecture festivals held in various Italian cities, Wave can count on a consistently large number of participants. Wave has increased its visibility in recent years by means of a dedicated blog and the participation of several foreign students (150, excluding those already in Venice on the Erasmus Programme) selected by means of a call for participants. At the same time, connections to the city have been strengthened by the involvement of the Municipality of Venice as well as by the choice of a Venice-based theme for the projects.

The most recent edition of Wave focused on the industrial area of Porto Marghera. This choice has at least two interesting elements: the first relates to the key Venetian question, the future of the city; the second is the fact that Porto Marghera is one of the largest industrial areas in the world facing decommissioning problems and the resulting need for reclamation. The theme is made more challenging by the necessity to find a new source of vitality for an area directly connected with the lagoon and which faces Venice itself. Within this vast area, the architects were given the freedom to identify a series of ‘sub-areas’ in which to work on their choice of project, choosing, for each one, an architectural, urban or landscape scale. Materials giving information about the history of the area and its current condition were prepared in advance by the IUAV (these were particularly useful for the non-Italian lecturers).

The practical aspects of the workshops are conducted in the lecture rooms of Santa Marta and the Magazzini, the ‘actors’ being: the students; the assistants assigned to each workshop; the lecturers from the ranks of the IUAV and the guest lecturers. The lecture rooms are constantly filled by students and visitors curious about the various phases of the projects, this ‘mixed presence’ intensifying as the various proposals take shape. Finally, the ideas and observations are given a definitive structure and displayed in an exhibition in the same lecture rooms in which the workshops were conducted.

Needless to say, managing 2,000 students, 30 lecturers and at least the same number of tutors is no easy task. In the months leading up to the workshops, and in the days in which they are held, the entire structure of the IUAV is engaged, while a group of young graduate students provides assistance ‘in the field’, dealing with a wide range of problems like from delivering materials for model-making and organization of the daily schedule. Since the 2013 edition, the ‘journal’ that documented the event day by day was replaced with a blog and a video diary shot by young IUAV filmmakers whose material was used as the basis for the documentary featuring the highlights of Wave 2013.

Undoubtedly it is during the final days that this great workshop reaches its maximum intensity. In the final hours, the lecture rooms are prepared in various ways to display the projects, transforming the entire Santa Marta area into a vast exhibition space that not only documents the work carried out, but also provides a cross section of current trends in contemporary architecture. The penultimate stage is the work of the jury (chaired in 2013 by Mario Botta) which views the exhibition, listens to the presentations and identifies the best ‘performances’. The workshops conclude with a crowded, prize-giving ceremony.

Alberto Ferlenga is full professor in Architectural and Urban Composition and is director of the Doctoral School at the Università Iuav di Venezia.

Webibliography
http://wave2013iuav.wordpress.com/
http://wave2014iuav.wordpress.com/