Carlo Ratti and Höweler + Yoon's floating AquaPraça plaza anchors in Venice
Italian studio Carlo Ratti Associati and US firm Höweler + Yoon Architecture have debuted a floating plaza with sloping floors at the Venice Architecture Biennale before it journeys to Brazil for COP30.
Named AquaPraça, the 400-square-metre plaza is partly submerged in water, with ramps forming higher levels for lookout points and lower levels where visitors are close to the water's surface.
Built in collaboration with intergovernmental organisation CIHEAM Bari and the World Bank Group's Connect4Climate, the plaza was designed as a space to gather and discuss the climate, architecture and the environment.
With a capacity of over 150 people, the bright white platform will host workshops, talks, exhibitions and events.
"AquaPraça lets visitors meet the sea at eye level," said Höweler + Yoon Architecture co-founder Eric Höweler. "Its sloping surfaces and shifting levels embody a delicate equilibrium."
"It's a platform, both literal and figurative, for deepening our collective understanding and experience of sea level rise and the impacts of climate change on global cities and communities, and seeking collective solutions," added the studio's other co-founder J Meejin Yoon.
Images show AquaPraça being towed into the Arsenale in Venice to form part of this year's biennale, which was curated by Carlo Ratti Associati founder Carlo Ratti.
It will later be relocated to Belém, Brazil, to form part of the Italian Pavilion at the COP30 climate conference in November, after which, Italy will donate the plaza to the Brazilian government as a permanent public space in Belém.
The structure holds and releases water to maintain a continuous level with the water it is floating in, and a rectangular cut-out creates a water feature in the centre of the sloped floor.
"AquaPraça shows how architecture can engage with the future by responding to climate and engaging with nature rather than resisting it," said Ratti.
The Venice Architecture Biennale opened on 10 May. Other projects at the event that respond to the waterside location include a structure that transforms canal water into coffee, designed by US practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and a metallic bridge and transport hub created by car brand Porsche and the Norman Foster Foundation.
Other floating architecture recently featured on Dezeen include a sauna in California made from shipping containers and a residential neighbourhood in Rotterdam.
The photography is by Peter White unless stated.
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