INSTALLATION UPCYCLING

Project Title: Icarus open air museum

Project Theme: Urban Design | Installation Upcycling

Project Year: 2018-2021

Location: Corbola, Italy

Client: public

Building Dimension: 100 Sqm

Design: Barman architects

Project Team: Roberta Bartolone, Giulio Mangano

Collaborators: Filippo Andrighetto, Carlo Baldin, Leonardo Giacalone, Tommaso Spagnolli, Tomas Ambra, Mattia Deon

Mepart Program: Heritage Asset Management SBRL, IUAV University Spin-Off

Photographer: Fabio Purgino

First Installation:

Project Title: The Port and the Fall of Icarus for the “Work Body Leisure” Pavilion

Project Theme: Architecture Biennale 2018

Project Year: 2018

Location: Venice, Riva Sette Martiri - Venice

Client: public

Building Dimension: 100 Sqm

Design: Hamed Khosravi, Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin, Filippo LaFleur + APML-Architetti Pedron / La Tegola

Photographer: Igreg Studio

Status: Built

Our task

The project aims to extend the Icarus Pavilion life cycle after the end of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2018.

The reuse project is a pilot experiment to evaluate the feasibility, duration, cost, and adverse events of a full-scale research project called MEPART.

Mepart deals with upcycling installation to reduce the waste of temporary exhibitions. 

The context

The Port and the Fall of Icarus was a part of the extended program of the Dutch Pavilion, ‘Work, Body, Leisure,’ for the Venice Biennale 2018, curated by Marina Otero Verzier. The project comprised an installation inside the Dutch Pavilion and a public installation at Riva dei SetteMartiri in Venice. Hamed Khosravi, Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin, and Filippo LaFleur designed the external pavilion in Riva Sette Martiri. 

The installation, destined for landfill at the end of Biennale, was assembled in modular corten steel coated sandwich panels, and it was re-installed as a museum in the Municipality of Corbola.

The upcycling of the installation represents the pilot project of a more comprehensive program called MEPART, promoted by Heritage Asset Management S.B.R.L. 

THE TOPIC

Every year in the world, there are several temporary exhibitions related to the fields of art and architecture. The case study of the Biennale of Venice shows us that these kinds of events create different polarities in the city, attracting people to new temporary structures, like installations or pavilions. Usually, the lifecycle of temporary structures goes from the preliminary idea to its demolition.

What is the problem?

Temporary exhibitions produce tons of construction and demolition waste per year. 

The goal that MEPART wants to achieve is to reuse original installation materials and obtain manufacts of the same value or even more.

How?

Thinking about the project in terms of a reusable material catalog. Before the installation is built, professionals can produce a catalog and upload it to the MEPART website. By doing this, they enlarge the available material database. Extremely important is providing opportunities for users and making it easily accessible. The client exposes interests and needs to local designers; step by step, the structure is redefined to better respond to the environment. Thanks to an early communication of the available materials, the new site can be already chosen, and the structure can be redesigned in advance. By doing this, there’s no need to find a warehouse, and the transport involved in the storage process can be avoided. This process can be an opportunity to take advantage of these structures. So they could trigger social cohesion and new activities in the city. It is definitely a big step towards reducing excessive consumption and making a better future.

THE PROJECT

At the end of the Biennale, the panels were disassembled and cataloged. The project proposal provides to rebuild the installation with a new layout, according to the request of Corbola Municipality. The Port and the Fall of Icarushas has been re-functionalized as a small open-air museum close to the ancient Roman Via Popilia archaeological area.