PROJECT VENTOTENE

ended

Project Ventotene is a teaching and research module dedicated to exploring the EU dimension of architecture. On the 80th anniversary of Spinelli’s Ventotene Manifesto, the University Iuav of Venice sets out to create a space where architectural students can engage with the dynamics of European integration – a topic that is yet to find its grounding in the field of architecture. At the core of this module is a new research studio in architectural design, which will focus on a unique object, a monument that came to document a seismic shift in power dynamics: the panopticon of Santo Stefano in Ventotene. A structure that stood as a diagram of the centralized, disciplinary power associated with modern statehood, this was also the birthplace of the vision that, more than any other, challenged said political order. In light of this connection, the Italian government recently pledged to convert the panopticon into a EU educational and cultural institution. The new module will seize on this opportunity, approaching Ventotene as a laboratory to experiment with the architectural expression of EU power. The participants will elaborate a set of design proposals for the transformation of the disciplinary dispositif of Ventotene into a European institution, based on a critical analysis of what a panopticon represents vis-à-vis the increasingly decentralized, fragmented order of the European Union. Through a set of related activities, including a publication and an exhibition, the workings of the studio will be presented to multiple audiences, both within and outside the academia, and will be used to foster a dialogue with local and European policy-makers. In addition to breaking new ground in the field of architecture and introducing an original EU angle, PRO-VEN will also provide a special opportunity to anchor the study of the complex dynamics of European integration to a tangible object and explore, in a very direct way, the forms that Spinelli’s vision may take in the future.