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#19 - New Orleans, Venice, and The European Cultural Centre; Partners for Coastal Community Resilience
41 Plays12 days ago
This episode features Lucia Pedrana, Exhibition and Events Organizer for the European Cultural Centre in Venice, and PhD candidate Hadi El Hage who is a Lead Curator for Public Programs at the ECC. ECC Italy is a well-established branch of the larger European Cultural Centre, a cultural organisation founded in 2002 by artist René Rietmeyer committed to further develop and enhance intellectual and cultural exchange. To achieve this, the ECC continues to expand its international network of inspired, creative, and dedicated individuals. Among our main activities are the planning and management of cultural projects and the creation of exhibitions, publications, videos, and educational programms.
Lucia and Hadi were two of the key facilitators and curators for the Shaping the City Forum that took place October 5th and 6th of 2023 in New Orleans, in collaboration with New Orleans-based NANO Architecture & Interior Design. Lucia and Hadi explain to us the importance of their international work with Shaping the City: A Forum for Sustainable Cities and Communities, organized by the European Cultural Centre. For the forum, the ECC partnered with visionary architects Terri Dreyer and Ian Dreyer, NANO’s founding partners, to showcase their extraordinary storm and flood resilient infrastructure designs for the greater New Orleans region, honored with an ECC award as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Please visit the episode 19 webpage to find additional links, references and background information.
GUEST BIOS
Lucia Pedrana
Senior Exhibition and Events Organizer
Lucia has a background in art history and art managements with experience in museum education and communication. Currently managing a group of architecture and art exhibition organizers both in curating and logistics. Developing the international university program for architecture, design, and art universities in Venice for exhibitions and educational programs. Founder of Shaping The City symposium, lecturer at European Cultural Academy.
Hadi El Hage
Lead Curator for Public Programs
Hadi is an Architect and urban planner combining research and project implementation competencies with a wide experience in the coordination of architecture and urbanism exhibitions. Hadi specializes in cross-sectoral and multicultural environments. He has diverse experiences in the Middle East, China, and Europe in architecture and urban planning with focus on environmental planning and policies, climate change, waterfront regeneration, coastal areas, and health of cities.
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Transcript
Introduction: Designing for Climate Emergencies
00:00:00
Speaker
What we are experiencing and what we are worrying about is that that these exceptional appetites and conditions are becoming less and less exceptional. Shaping the city program in New Orleans looked into the theme of designing for climate emergency and it brought together different actors ah both from New Orleans as well as from Venice and different places across the world. Looking into designing effective solutions to preserve the future of cities.
00:00:40
Speaker
the city of new New Orleans has with Venice. Through exhibition making, we want to share about how architecture can help in finding solutions for people living in different parts of the world to have a a better future. Welcome to the Blue Economy Primer, a New Orleans based podcast where you learn from the experts the practical tools and solution sets that will empower your community to adapt and thrive in a new blue era of rising seas and economic
New Orleans & Global Climate Resilience
00:01:11
Speaker
discontinuity.
00:01:11
Speaker
For this episode, I have the special pleasure of being on site in Venice, Italy to have a conversation with Lucia Pedrana and Hadi El-Haj. Exhibition leaders and representatives of the European Cultural Center, or ECC. A cultural organization founded in 2002 by the Dutch artist, Rene Reapmeyer.
00:01:30
Speaker
The ECC has organized and hosted over 50 contemporary art, design, and architecture exhibitions worldwide, as well as hundreds of meetings, workshops, symposiums, and other cultural events. They also publish books, catalogs, and documentary videos, offering comprehensive educational programs for those interested in cultural exchange.
00:01:50
Speaker
Their recent work on coastal community resilience has helped highlight New Orleans' role as a frontline at-risk city facing the land loss, flooding and storm damage challenges of the growing global climate crisis. Lucci and Hadi, thank you so much for your great work and for joining us on the Blue Economy Primer. Can you please introduce yourself to our audience?
00:02:10
Speaker
Thank you, Greg. It's a pleasure for us to be here today. um My name is Lucia Pedrano and for the European Cultural Centre I'm the head of university relations. So I coordinate together with the rest of the team the relationships and the project we present in Venice and elsewhere in collaborations with research centres and academic institutions internationally.
00:02:32
Speaker
Hadi? Greg, thank you so much. My name is Hadi Alhaj. I'm an architect and urban planner. I work together with Lucia with universities and research centers to present their projects. But as well, we um curate and organize public programs in Venice and internationally like the ones that we have done in New Orleans in 2023.
00:02:57
Speaker
Wonderful. Lucia, I first learned about the work of the ECC through your partnership with Terry and Ian Dreyer of Nano Architecture in New Orleans. The conference that the ECC co-hosted in New Orleans last October was extraordinary, highlighting the shared challenges and critical links between cities like Venice and New Orleans. Can you tell us a bit more about how you became aware of Nano's submerged experience work and how it came about that their work became part of the ECC Time, Space, Existence exhibition?
Venice Biennials: A Platform for Innovation
00:03:25
Speaker
Sure, so um the ECC organizes every year a biennial exhibition in Venice in parallel to La Minardia Divanecia. and every second year is art or architecture focused. What we do since 2011 is to have exhibitions in the Art of Venice and create a platform where international practitioners, academic institutions, research centres, artists creating projects for the community, they can present their work to a broader audience.
00:04:02
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and it is part of our mission to create a snapshot, a photograph, let's say, of what is the current status of research and application of architecture and design worldwide. While doing so, we also understand let's say, which part of the world they are less explored or less exposed internationally from the perspective of being in Venice and having every second year an exhibition that really documents the international situation. And we wanted to dive into the research and the work of practitioners in certain parts of the world that were not presented before. So we learned
00:04:51
Speaker
about like ah these this ah existing dialogue of course between Venice and New Orleans and we wanted to understand more what was happening in Louisiana or in the south of the U.S.
00:05:06
Speaker
And this is how we got to learn about the work of Nano. And ah since the goal is also not to only present the work of very well established international studios, but also to share ah what is happening in emerging and with science studios, we thought that Nano was a great example of practice that could present their experience and their work on our international platforms. So this is how we started the conversation. And through the dialogue with Terry and Ian, we learned more and more about these communalities that are between Venice and New Orleans.
00:05:47
Speaker
We learn more about their own practice and we learn more about the history also of New Orleans. They came up with a proposal ah for the Timespiece Existence 2021 exhibition that was ah beautiful, beautifully crafted, beautifully researched, so there is a lot of material that was presented in Palazzo Mora which is one of our venues and It was a beautiful way how to present to a broader audience, not only like an audience of ah professionals in the in architecture, what is the situation in New Orleans and how similar are Venice and New Orleans through a very beautiful immersive installation. So this is how everything started and the first time we worked with Nana was
00:06:39
Speaker
therefore back then for a 2021 exhibition. um Through the months we of course kept talking about what can be done more than exhibiting or what the exhibition could create an opportunity for. And this is how we started thinking about creating something in New Orleans. So to take inspiration and benefit from this opportunity that was created through an international ah experience for them to come to Venice and how this experience could bring something back home, if that makes sense. um And that's why we started thinking about not true exhibition making but true a research project that has the shape of our ship in the city forum that we started SECC in 2018. How to
00:07:35
Speaker
use the format of shipping the city to hand to the conversation to bring the international experiences to New Orleans and how to foster further discussion and somehow put together the stakeholders in New Orleans to make them understand that only through collaborations between practitioners, policymakers and academia, something can be really ah made.
00:08:03
Speaker
and I mean, that this is how we ended up in New Orleans last October and we... really like enjoy it and learn a lot through that experience of bringing together very diverse a very diverse group of professionals discussing arguing also and sharing what is the points of view and it was beautiful for us to see also what is the outcome what was the outcome of this conversation and how still the conversation is
Nano Architecture's Impact
00:08:38
Speaker
going on. Yes, well, as I said, it was a fantastic exhibition and it was inspiring to see. I want to remind our listeners that the references for much of the information that Lucia is sharing will be on the podcast episode webpage so you can dig in deeper, including information about the Shaping the City program that they are working on. Lucia, can you tell us a bit more about the ECC's Venice Biennale work, as well as the ECC's role in promoting and supporting parallel events and outreach? Every second year,
00:09:05
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We have our Time Space Existence architecture exhibition, which runs in Venice, in Para del Toulabina di Venetio. And it takes place in the ACC Italy venues of Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo, and Marina Risa Gardens. We present about 200 different projects coming from architecture studios, academic institutions, designers,
00:09:29
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and artists working within community. And every year at the end of the exhibition, which is normally end of November, we have an awarding ceremony. So we with the support of an international jury, we select a group of winners for each of the categories represented in the exhibition that normally are architecture,
00:09:53
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university and research design and art and in 2021 NANO won the architecture award and this is for us a very important opportunity to you know not only exhibit but also to thank the exhibitors, they bring their own work to Venice and to celebrate together what what has been our journey together through the exhibition like making and not only. So what do you think were some of the elements or aspects of Nano's submerged experience the submittal that made it stand out among the hundreds of other ECC architecture award submissions? Nano project presented in 2021 was really complex.
00:10:41
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meaning that not not because it was difficult to understand, it's the other way around. There was like a ah beautiful crafted installation that allowed a broad audience made not only of professionals in the field of architecture to understand the complexity of the situation in New Orleans and the connection that the city of new New Orleans has with Venice and because of their ah location on ah on a lagoon or on wetlands because of the effects of climate change on these two cities. s So it was ah very impressive, the outcome of course, but also the amount of work and research that has been done by NANO together there with their partners and also the way that was translated for the broader audience.
00:11:37
Speaker
What were some takeaway lessons for you after your visit to an experience in New Orleans?
Architectural Activism in New Orleans
00:11:42
Speaker
Did it change your understanding of NANO's work and how they promote awareness of community climate crisis issues? Being in New Orleans and surely expanding time with NANO, with Ian and Terry was ah amazing for us because we absolutely understood better how they are part of the community and how they see their practice has a um a tool also like to create something positive, create an impact for the community they live in and they are part of. So their activist, let's say, approach that was something that we could sense before for sure, but that we definitely understood while being with them in New Orleans.
00:12:32
Speaker
What are the techniques, processes, and theory of change that the EC seeks to apply in your work? Through exhibition making, we work on collecting ah um diverse and international ah group of projects and experiences that they come from different parts of the world. And they relate to, well, relating to very similar issues. So we want to share with professionals and with a broader audience, which is not ah
00:13:07
Speaker
that much like technical about how design architecture works, what are communalities and differences between different parts of the world, and how architecture reacts on these situations, and how architecture can help in finding solutions for people living in different parts of the world to have a better future.
00:13:33
Speaker
Like so many of the communities in the Venetian Lagoon and the Po River Delta, Louisiana's coastal communities are facing annihilation. How do you see the ECC's work and others helping to protect or delay the perhaps inevitable disappearance of these unique cultural centers of excellence? In Venice, there are like different institutions that they are specifically focused on preserving the community, preserving like the excellencies of the region.
00:14:01
Speaker
The ECC doesn't have that specific role, but what we do is to enhance as much as possible what is their activities and connecting them with the international situation, international scene.
00:14:17
Speaker
so We bring what is happening around the world to Venice and then we invite Venetian stakeholders to see what is happening there and we do have our best to um foster collaborations between local and internationals.
00:14:36
Speaker
This is very much highlighted within the exhibitions that ECC does here in Venice, but also through the public programmes that we organise, including Shaping the City Forum, where we curate conversations between architects, planners, designers, as well as policymakers, all together in one conversation to discuss key issues around our cities. um We have done this programme many times in Venice and internationally,
00:15:05
Speaker
and the latest one that we mentioned was in New Orleans, that really addressed the top ah very important issue which is common between both Venice and New Orleans, which is all about designing for and the climate emergency. With the ECC's commitment to cultural awareness, how do you see at-risk cultural centers like Venice and New Orleans moving forward and or cooperating to become more resilient in the face of the climate crisis?
00:15:29
Speaker
The climate change is is among the most significant challenges that are facing ah many cities all over the world. um Venice in the North Adriatic and New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico are you know highly subject to sea level rise and different threats, different climate threats. Both cities with their unique geographies, with their unique culture, with their unique history and architecture are notorious for the climate change risks that they are facing. As ECC, we decided to create a public program in a new order to address these topics and to acknowledge the necessity to work all together across the different different disciplines in order to fight this climate emergency. Can you please tell us a little bit more about the Shaping the City program? Yes.
00:16:24
Speaker
um so ah Shaping the city program in New Orleans looked into the the theme of designing for climate emergency and it brought together different actors ah both from New Orleans as well as from Venice and different places across the world. um We were looking into designing effective solutions to preserve the future ah of cities um and then through different approaches and we looked at that into different themes. So the first conversation that we've had was a conversation was a comparison between a New Orleans and Venice.
00:16:56
Speaker
where we discuss all the commonalities and the differences of how Venice is dealing with water and Venice is co-existing with water and as well as how how New Orleans has fought to stay given all the extreme events that has happened in the past. um This was one of the main topics we addressed. We also talked about um um how climate change is very much linked to environmental justice and social justice in low-lying communities andlying geographies such as and particularly in new New Orleans. We also showcase different case studies and different examples from across the world to catalyze urban climate resilience, and for that we covered a large scope, ranging from different European examples from from from Denmark to Venice to the Netherlands,
00:17:47
Speaker
to Southeast Asia, as well as many different examples in the Americas. At Deep Blue, we are focused on the blue economy and blue technologies in the context of coastal community resilience. What does the blue economy and blue tech development mean to you? And how do you see the ECC's work engaging these issues? The ECC we are not ah this this is not ah a research center. It's not like a producer or new content or research or solutions. what It's our mission is really to raise awareness on these important topics that are touching all of us independently for where we are, where we live, and how we live. But it's important for us to learn first in order to be able to raise awareness, to educate through exhibitions, through the public program,
00:18:42
Speaker
as shaping the city and other events that we host and create in Venice and internationally and also through the collaborations that we create with those they create the research and then they propose the solution to these very important issues. To add to that we consider that ECC and in particular shaping the city project as a ah place of dialogue, a lieu of dialogue or exchange where we connect with a unique global network of of leaders in the field that are striving to make the cities healthier, more equitable and environmentally sustainable. ah Within the project we try to always uncover transformative evidence-based solutions for pressing urban challenges such as the climate emergency that we're dealing with and that was very much highlighted in New Orleans. And finally, we always try to bridge the gap between the research, the policy and practice to mobilize different kinds of
00:19:40
Speaker
ah say resources to support equity for today's generation and for the future generations of cities. Do you have any favorite or key benchmarks or statistics that crystallize the global climate crisis for you, perhaps related to specific impacts on Venice or other coastal communities around the world?
Venice's Climate Challenges
00:19:59
Speaker
Speaking about Venice in particular, maybe it's very important to highlight Aqua Alta, where the high rise of water So it's a natural phenomenon that has always been there in Venice and it's a feature of our divination life that has always existed and is kind and will continue to exist. Aqualta is a tidal event um that has a very short duration. It happens in in particular seasons across the year where there's the low tide and the high tide and that leads to the high rise of water or aqualta.
00:20:26
Speaker
across the different parts of the city. Now, what we want to say is that ah it could be dangerous in many different ah different situations and different ah years. And this is what happened in 2019. So this happened a few years ago, where the water rose for almost two meters in particular. um And this created a large threat to the city and to the citizens that are living in Venice.
00:20:52
Speaker
Yeah, ah I mean, there was like in 1966, like what they they call like Aqua Grande, which is really like a huge amount of water, literally, that was like ah one of the most recent events that made everybody understand like the the the risk that the city is at. But the 2019 that Adi just mentioned is for sure something closer to us, because it's really, really recent.
00:21:21
Speaker
and That experience, for sure, um got everybody quite scared because of the level of the water, the fires that were around the city, the difficult for fire police and ambulances to reach the people in need, and the unpredictability of what would have happened next. Because, as Adi mentioned, normally, the Akwalta is a quite short in time phenomenon so you know that it's coming but it's also leaving quite soon and in that occasion in November 2019 that was not leaving so and that was not only the aqua itself but was a combination of
00:22:05
Speaker
factors, so different weather conditions that are linked to ah climate change that created that um situation. And what we are experiencing and what we are worrying about is that these exceptional eyes and conditions are becoming less and less exceptional. So we are, you know, like kind of getting radio, we have to get ready to extreme weather conditions that were not there before.
00:22:35
Speaker
And for that, for sure, there are some of the actions taken by the the local authorities, like DeMose, or like other things that we see in place to prevent like damages, etc. But this unpredictability of what can come next is really what worries the community of Venice, because it's not what we have been always used to.
00:23:04
Speaker
Maybe it's important also to highlight what is the the reference here of water and how how much the water rises. So the tide values are always indicated in centimeters and have a reference of zero according to the convention that has been established in 1897 basically. But since Venice is walkable and it's made of different islands that are connected through hundreds of bridges, it is not a homogeneous plane.
00:23:32
Speaker
So the same tidal event occurs in different points in the city in a variable way, depending on the height of the pavement and the height of the ground. So also to give it a little more perspective, everyone is very much aware of Quetta San Marco. But Quetta San Marco is the lowest point in area in Venice, where the high water becomes directly perceptible when the height of the tide is just greater than 82 centimeters. So if the tide rises above or up to 105 centimeters,
00:24:02
Speaker
ah You can ah already observe around 20 centimeters that you can see with your with your across your feet, let's say. Other places like out in front of the train station or the Yalto Bridge, which also mark key points inside the city, have different ah heights and different levels across along the water and they have different perception and you can see a different way where the water And the edge of the water blurs with the fundamentally that we have or the boulevards where people walk. So being low in frequency events with a tide above 140 centimeters are considered to be exceptional. But as Lucia mentioned, above 40 centimeters is becoming the new norm. And that is the tricky part.
00:24:51
Speaker
What are some key policies, technologies, or project types that you are watching come online that could be important new tools for coastal community resilience, cultural preservation, and disaster response?
00:25:03
Speaker
So as a um as an architect and urban planner, I'm also very much interested in in different kinds of research. um And the the project that I'm embarking right now is a PhD research project between the University of Venice and TU Delft in the Netherlands, which is all about um the intersection of climate change health in coastal areas. So what is the impact of climate change that we have on the health of citizens in coastal areas? So I'm particularly going to be researching about water sensitive design, create a new catalogue of tools and solutions um to combat climate change in coastal areas from an urban design and architecture perspective. In Venice, since 2020, we have ah an operational barrier which is called moe
00:25:55
Speaker
which is this engineering tool that has been constructed over tens of years, that rises every time there's a high tide. So Mosa can protect fence and the lagoon up to three meters high tide and from a sea level rise of up to 60 centimeters for the next hundred years.
00:26:18
Speaker
This engineering solution or barrier consists of 78 mobile gates, which separate the Venetian lagoon from the Adriatic Sea and defends Venice from these exceptional tiles that we spoke about and the destructive tiles that can really destroy the entire ground floor. Mose is located into the three inlets of the Venetian lagoon. So there are three doors, let's say where water passes from the Adriatic to towards the lagoon. And that is where those mobile ah barriers that go up and down and that are monitored by engineers, hydraulic engineers, that go up and protect the city from all ah exceptional ties that we're speaking about. So we'll be sure to have some more information about MOSA. What does MOSA stand for or where does the name come from?
00:27:04
Speaker
Sure, so it's an Italian acronym, MOSE, which is Modulo Experimentale Electromechanical, which translated is Experimental Electromechanical Module. um But there is also like a second meaning to the MOSE, which is related to the biblical character Moses.
00:27:23
Speaker
which was the the character who saved they saved the people from from the waters. So, um of course, there's a lot of irony about it, but it's a true story. That's great. Thank
Future of Climate Resilience Policies
00:27:36
Speaker
you. So what is next for you all? What are you most excited about in your personal and professional journeys?
00:27:41
Speaker
For me now it's 10 years that I work and collaborate with the European Cultural Centre. It has been and is still as ah a great journey, especially because when you come from a background like mine in the east history of art and arts management, you do not really realise how many opportunities can come from exhibition making and how exhibition making can be an important tool to have an impact on the on the society somehow. So what um I wish for the future of my personal career at the ECC and for the ECC in general is to continue creating creating opportunities for all those doing such an important work internationally to be seen, to be understood and to move forward. So again, to use the the opportunity we have in Venice to
00:28:42
Speaker
push the actions that the others professionally in this field can move forward. What about you, Hadi? Being part of ECC has has opened many doors, and i'm I'm very much excited about the next projects that we're going to do in 2025 with the European Culture Centre, whether it's the exhibition that's going to happen in Venice or other public programs and through shaping the city platform in Venice and internationally.
00:29:09
Speaker
What I am very much interested about is how would I'd like to merge and mix between my research hat, let's say, oh working on those topics in particular, and the idea of exhibitions and public programs, and how can I leverage exhibitions in order to influence policymakers and decision makers in order to make the right decisions and actions um in the issues that I'm interested about, which is all about water, coastal communities, and bolstering our cities against the climate emergency.
00:29:42
Speaker
At the moment, we are working on the next edition of Time's Quiz Existence, which is going to take place next year in parallel to Labena Architettura 2025. And it's going to run from May 10th until November 23rd. So this is the moment where the entire team is collecting proposals ah for the exhibition and the public program. So we are really excited about like what the program next year is going to look like.
00:30:12
Speaker
Well, I want to thank you both so much. It's been such a pleasure to be visiting Venice again and catching up with you after your visit to New Orleans, which really was important and exciting for me, as well as many other participants that I know. I certainly appreciate this opportunity to learn more about the ECC firsthand. Thank you for your time, and I'll certainly look forward to staying in touch, continuing the conversation, and finding ways to collaborate in the future. Thank you so much, Greg. Thank you.
00:30:34
Speaker
Thank you. for joining us on the blue academy primer if you enjoy today's podcast don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform please help us spread the word and be sure to visit our website at w w w dot deep blue dot academy where you can find all of our available episodes access important links and supporting information for each episode Send us your comments and or suggestions for potential guests and topics, get more information about our community engagement initiatives, and join our mailing list, as well as make a much appreciated tax-deductible donation to support our non-profit education and research mission. Thanks again to the Dan Lucas Memorial Foundation and the Panch Train Conservancy for their critical financial and institutional support. Until next time, when we meet again on the ever-expanding horizon of the Blue Economy.