Concept : Veni, Vidi, Venice

`V´ is for Venezia

Arriving and departing the city by air is an anticipatory and temporal experience. The traffic roundabout is a ubiquitous urban structure. To distinguish the ‘Venice to the World’ competition roundabout, the `V´ concept explores, amplifies, and celebrates symbolic notions of Venice, Flight, and Movement into a fleeting iconographic experience.

Memory is favored over artifice in a composition of contemporary and dynamic iconic forms.

I came, I saw, Venice.

Inspiration / Context

The main access roundabout, at Aeroporto Marco Polo di Venezia, intersects the SS14 arterial road and feeds the dual-carriageway Viale Galileo Galilei airport access boulevard. The proposal organizes the main design elements on an axis with this intersection.

Surrounded by a 6 meter perimeter safety zone, each element is designed to guide, protect, and provide for driver directional clarity.

A raised podium, set asymmetrically on the roundabout area, acts as an elevated backdrop and support for the `V´ wing and the ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘Venezia’ lettering. Constructed in a combination of ‘harlequin’ patterned and plain pre-cast permeable pavers, these modular elements aid in installation and the reduction of long term maintenance costs.

The `V´ wing, is anchored on a concrete foundation and consists of a structural steel armature with a GRP (glass reinforced polyester) exterior skin. Silhouetted profiles of the Venice skyline, including the Campanile di San Marco, Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore, and Ponte di Rialto, are featured on the `V´ wing surface.

The outer winglets of the `V´ incorporate pinpoint LED lighting.