Roosevelt Golino_Idroscalo

The edge condition at Idroscalo is unique as both man made and natural barriers segregate the village from the rest of its surrounding context. As a site of aquatic recreation the bilancione or “large balances,” was the village’s most significant loss, during government overtake, as it was a definitive part of Idroscalo’s identity that created a former edge used by the local fishermen. In its place the erection of fencing and ten foot breakwater have succeeded in containing the unwanted village to this perimeter. As a given method to mitigate the effects of flooding, the walls fail letting water intrude with destruction.

With both the water and government threatening to erase the village to preserve Idroscalo is to resolve the tension between the sea and the village Seeking to “balance” the tensions between water’s destructive and regenerative potential this urban design proposal reintroduces the breakwater surmounted by a series of bilancione.

Demonstrating compelling tectonic qualities, the bilancione fill the gaps in the new breakwater between semi-inhabitable rocks that evolve from a method of pushing and pulling based on tidal shifts, which control water flow similar to the project proposed in Venice, into light, inhabitable dwelling units. As the dynamic hinge that  connects the threshold between the village and the sea the bilancione acts as a mechanism that allows the breakwater to adjust to the water‘s ebbs and flows, serving as an active transitional space within the breakwater.