Cultural — 2023
Museo d'Acqua
Venice
Water as architecture — a museum built on the Venetian lagoon.
The Challenge
Building on the lagoon presents unique challenges: tidal fluctuations of over a metre, a bed of soft silt that cannot bear conventional foundations, and strict preservation regulations governing any construction in the Venetian basin.
Area
3,800 m²
Foundation
1,100 timber piles
Duration
42 months
Visitors
180,000 (Y1)
Process
We revived a construction technique refined over a thousand years of Venetian engineering: driving timber piles deep through the silt until they reach the compacted clay layer beneath. Over 1,100 piles support the structure. The building was prefabricated in modules and assembled on site to minimise disruption to the lagoon.
Materials
The primary structure is poured concrete reinforced with aggregates from the Venetian mainland. The exterior is clad in Istrian stone — the same material used by Palladio. Interior surfaces are finished in polished plaster that reflects the water moving through the canals below.
Client
“Most museums are about looking. This one is about feeling. The water is not just the subject — it is the experience.”
Outcomes
The museum's opening exhibition drew 180,000 visitors in its first six months. The building adapts to rising sea levels through a series of hidden flood barriers that deploy automatically. Featured in The New York Times, Domus, and Architectural Record.
Location
Venice
Year
2023
Type
Cultural
Duration
2019–2023
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