For decades in Venice they have ben discussing, between many other issues, about the “Arsenale affair”. In recent times the issue has been tackled by the City Council Administration, within the framework of the proposal inside the Program of Urban Renewal and of Sustainable Territorial Development called “The urban system Tessera Arsenale”.The until then just crude scheme has been deepened and developed in many occasions, up to the drawing of the Detailed Plans for the area. The last years’work has involved all the area’s existing bodies and is thought as a necessary step before the realization of the last of the transformations undergone by the Arsenale since the 13th century’s first unit. That work is explained in the book “The renaissance of the Arsenale-The factory changes”, presented last december.

In his opening speech Roberto D’Agostino, Councillor for Strategical Planning in Venice, explains the reasons for the drawing of this book: “The Arsenale of Venice: the mere utterance of this place evokes memories, melancholies, problems, ideas, possibilities through which concentrating and finding a guiding principle is not easy. That is why, in the last decades, it has been the subject of debates, plans and proposals that have never been able to become real actions. During the last years the situation has changed and it is possible to think that, even with many doubts, the Arsenale of Venice has entered a route that will lead to a complete recovery. This book talks about the Arsenale as of a living body, whose past transformations give the reasons and tell us how we must act in the present and for the future, it tries to explain where this route is going.” The book is divided in three sections; one concerns the change project, illustrating the contents and modalities of building of the planning process, one is about recent changes and describes last decade’s interventions in view of a renewal, and the last one, that concerns historical changes allowing us to interpret the present structure and to view the project in a consistent perspective, has been written in association with many authors who in different ways have taken part into this ambitious project: Rosetta Bortolato, Francesco Calzolaio, Ennio Concina, Davide Croff, Roberto D’Agostino, Ambra Dina, Claudio Menichelli, Francesco Martuscelli, Pina Maugeri, Luigi Oliva, Antonio Paruzzolo, Maria Giovanna Piva, Andrea Sarno, Pasquale Vetrice, Laura Zampieri, Guglielmo Zanelli.