The commitment of Fondazione Venezia 2000 to the Venetian Metropolis didn’t end with the OECD report, indeed this was only the stepping-stone in the development of a support project for the construction of the metropolitan city.

In his intervention, published on the Quaderno 8, Cesare De Michelis stresses the great opportunity, offered by the publication of a documented study as the one dedicated to Venice by the OECD, for the elaboration of new actions to be implemented in the area or for the reflection on the history of this crossroads that is, once again, the focus of attention.

There are several topics that could be analysed in order to proceed in the development of the metropolitan city project, but it’s probably useful to start by addressing the critical aspects stressed in OECD’s Report that – as underlined by Marino Folin in the Quaderno – offers some recommendations to overcome the conflictual aspects still present inside the metropolitan area in order to enhance it and to fully develop its inner potential and synergies.

In this sense, the difficulty arising from the iconographical representation of the metropolitan city and its features can be a limitation. Fondazione Venezia 2000 has recently opened a round table with local experts and scholars concerning the possible creation of an observatory for the metropolitan area, building on the considerations and analysis provided in the OECD Report.

Currently, even though some data derived from satellite pictures, geographical maps, orthophotos are actually available, there’s a lack of specific conceptual elaborations that, on the one hand, can represent the metropolitan city and, on the other hand, can offer a clearer perception of the metropolitan structure.

This is a challenging goal requiring the involvement of several skills and knowledge in order to shape a project that can gather, share and enhance the acquired information and techniques.

A first contribution in this direction has been offered inside the second and the third part of the Quaderno, dedicated to the metropolitan city in terms of spatial planning and to the representation of the area through images, cartographies and projects.