Venice: a library for the world

The project is born from an analysis of all the libraries of the historic center of Venice: from the quantification of individual book assets - precious architectural "volumes" with a "weight" of paper absolutely significant - to the identification of problems and needs of the venues in relation to the city and to the contemporaneity.

With the thesis "Venice: a library for the world, a cultural laboratory for the city", I tried to direct the research on the library both as a spatial device and as a pivotal point of the city, deepening also the organizational and social aspects. I structured an extensive research program carried out during the two years of masterly studies. With the thesis I studied the architecture of the books, dedicating the first part of work to the study of useful texts and deepen the knowledge of the library and its management, a second research was dedicated to the mapping of all the Venice libraries, the photographic survey and to the knowledge of the patrimony and the problems of the libraries in the historical center of Venice; I also profited the instrument of the interview enriching the own methodologies of investigation. A third chapter of the work was dedicated to a comparison between the Venetian libraries and those present in the Manhattan peninsula, this part was examined in particular by Professor Jason Vigneri-Beane, from Pratt Institute, through a period of study of the American case, in the month of November 2016 in which I also had the opportunity to relate to other research methodologies. The last part of the work was dedicated to developing a project proposal aimed at defining a new artifact in Venice, a tried and tested ark to fulfill all the problems encountered in the city libraries and to offer itself as a connection point for a polycentric system. It is an example matrix for the creation of a network of synergies that contains a program that involves more and that can create a positive return to the city. The research wants to map and define places of culture in order to underline the important task of being a cultural propulsion for the city. The city has been studied and revealed as a large open laboratory in which it is possible to foresee single interventions that can help the growth of creative thinking and the relationship with the documents of man's memory.