Resisting Venice: individual and collective housing practices to stay put in the tourist city

ABSTRACT

Whereas Venice (Italy) has been extensively analysed through the lens of tourism, little has been written so far regarding the resistance practices emerging due to increasing tourism-led gentrification. This paper presents two examples of housing initiatives taking place in the historic city and its neighbouring lagoon islands. The first, promoted by a collective actor (Assemblea Sociale per la Casa), concerns the selection, occupation, and self-restoration of public dwellings located in the historic city; the second, an individual choice made by some citizens, concerns moving to the small lagoon islands as not simply a form of displacement, but as a resistance mechanism against the progressive expansion of the tourism industry into the lagoon margins. Drawing on Annunziata and Rivas-Alonso’s work, the aim of this contribution is to provide an interpretation of such initiatives as examples of resistance practices in gentrifying contexts, and to enrich the literature on resisting gentrification by stressing their informal, invisible, and ambiguous nature.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing
• gentrification
• resistance
• conflicts
• urban practices
• economic and social innovation

Acknowledgements

The reflections in this paper are part of two research projects funded by IUAV University of Venice. Our results were developed in parallel and converged in an ensuing joint work that was a unique opportunity to comprehensively interpret some of the emerging dynamics in the Venice lagoon. This paper would not have been possible without the crucial collaboration of many people and in particular of our interviewees, who prefer to remain anonymous and who helped us navigate the massive phenomena led by neo-liberal intentions. Special thanks to the late Sandra Annunziata for all the love she put in her work, and also for the warm and compelling enthusiasm she devoted to our small victories as researchers when this article was in its infancy.

Informed consent

The research aligns with the guidelines issued by the ethic research committee of IUAV University of Venice. All interviewees who participated in the research were properly informed about the article’s publication and gave their verbal consent to having it published. Although participant data have been anonymized, such alterations have not distorted the article’s scholarly meaning.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Venetians usually refer to the water city of Venice as the “historic city” instead of “the historic city centre” to emphasise its autonomous status as a city instead of as simply the “centre” of a larger territory. Worth noting is that the municipal spatial plan also refers to it as the “ancient city.” Therefore, we will use the term “historic city” throughout the text.

2 The Municipality of Venice includes not only the historic city in the lagoon, but also several islands commonly referred to as “minor” or “small” (regardless of their size), and a sprawling mainland comprised of the cities of Mestre and Marghera. Administratively, the Municipality is divided into 6 districts and, for statistical purposes, 12 neighbourhoods (see Figure 1).

3 For instance, San Clemente, Santa Cristina, and Isola delle Rose are fully devoted to luxury tourism today.

4 Worth mentioning that Sandra Annunziata’s research project AGAPE: Exploring anti-gentrification practices and policies in Southern European Cities was funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. The entire body of study produced by the author, who died in early 2019, is 2022 in Sandra Annunziata, Oltre la gentrification. Letture di urbanistica critica tra desiderio e resistenze urbane (Florence: editpress).

5 The Azienda Territoriale per l’Edilizia Residenziale is an autonomous public agency that manages, on a provincial scale, the Venetian public housing stock.

6 The research included interviews with institutional (public, third sectors) and civic (activists and private) actors, for the overall dynamic of housing sectors in Venice, see Fava and Fregolent (2019). In Fava (2019), the case studies were about affordable time-based housing mainly promoted by the Venetian third sector.

7 See: https://www.tribunal-evictions.org/international_tribunal_on_evictions/sessions/6th_session_2017.

8 Data available at https://www.comune.venezia.it/it/content/serie-storiche.

9 In total, around 11,000 social rental dwellings owned by ATER, the City of Venice and religious entities.

10 See: https://www.ilgazzettino.it/nordest/venezia/mestre_alloggi_popolari_ater_case-6935764.html?refresh_ce.

11 In 2017, the restoration of about 600 municipal dwellings was funded through PON Metro – Operative Plan Metropolitan City.

12 See also the law n. 560/1993 that defines norms regarding public housing disposal.

13 Since 2018, Venetian citizens and associations have organised periodic meetings with the aim of developing project proposals to be submitted to public institutions. The Carta della residenza is one of the first results of this activity.

14 See art. 5, law n. 80/2014; dl Sicurezza n. 113/2018.

15 Among the projects, it is worth mentioning The Theatre of Useful, presented at the 15th Venice Biennale – Report from the front (2016). Born from the collaboration between Rebiennale and Rural Studio (Auburn University), it reinterprets a list of materials selected by the ASC and a local cooperative for the future recovery of public housing and spaces. As ASC/Rebiennale’s members argue, this project concretises the philosophical approach of the group, designing the entire spatial production from construction to dismantling and recycling.

16 In 2014, the group proposed an experimental project to public institutions based on the inclusion of cooperative actors and self-recovery/organisational strategies. The discussion was launched but ceased shortly afterward due to a sudden political shift (from left to right wing). At present, it is undergoing a reviewing and updating process with the aim of keeping the discussion alive with interested urban actors. See (in the original language) https://issuu.com/giuliogrillo/docs/progetto_asc-rev5nov.

17 See https://rebiennale.org/it/.

18 See: https://www.r3b.it/.

19 Worth noting is the central role played by self-restoration practices in the renovation of houses, not infrequently through the mutual help offered by “indigenous” residents.

20 In this perspective, it is worth mentioning the experience of the “Poveglia for all” committee which acts against the sale of the Poveglia island and fosters its acquisition by locals willing to transform the island into a public park. See: https://www.povegliapertutti.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/poveglia-grande-new.pdf.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matteo Basso

Matteo Basso, urban and regional planner, Ph.D in regional planning and public policy, is assistant professor of Urban and regional planning at Iuav University of Venice and visiting professor at VIU – Venice International University. Within the field of urban studies his research interests broadly refer to the analysis of urban, landscape and regional transformations, and the design of urban and regional policies. His current research activities mainly focus on the diffusion of wine-growing and the related socio-economic and territorial impacts in North-Eastern Italy, the demographic and housing dynamics within the small islands of the lagoon of Venice, the state-of-the-art of the Covenant of Mayor implementation in European cities, the organisation and management of international mega-events. He has been visiting scholar at the University of Westminster, London and the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University, Shanghai. On these occasions he has studied the planning processes related to the organisation of the London 2012 Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the results of which were eventually published in the book Grandi eventi e politiche urbane. Governare «routine eccezionali»: un confronto internazionale (Guerini e Associati, Milano).

Federica Fava

Federica Fava, architect and PhD in architecture and urban design, is assistant professor at Roma Tre University (Rome). Between 2018 and 2022 she work in the EU funded project OpenHeritage (Horizon 2020). In 2019, she was a member of FedercasaLAB, a research laboratory focused on public housing regeneration launched by Federcasa – Italian Federation for Housing Associations. Between 2017 and 2018, she obtained a post-doc re-search fellowship at IUAV University of Venice where she focused on housing affordability in Venice. In 2017 she published the book Estate romana. Tempi e pratiche della città effimera (Quodlibet) and was a research team member of the “Future Architecture Platform” project, promoted by the Italian Museum of Arts MAXXI. Her research mainly focuses on urban heritage regeneration through projects based on cultural, participative and innovative practices. She is interested in investigating how and under what conditions these processes can be upscaled and integrate in a sustainable and equitable city development.

Laura Fregolent

Laura Fregolent, Ph.D in urban and regional planning, is full professor of Urban and regional planning at Iuav University of Venice. Her research is focused on urban and territorial analysis to understand: the relationship between urban and territorial transformations and social dynamics connected (in particular) with housing issues; conflicts generated at urban and territorial scale through projects or transformations that impact on both environment and social context; the relationships between data collected, urban policy, and planning tools. The city of Venice and the Veneto region are her main field of study and research application. She is co-director of the journal Archivio di studi urbani e regionali (ISSN: 0004-0177; ISSNe 1971-8519) published by FrancoAngeli (Italy).