Venice Urban Lab
Open Rooms Venice - Inhabiting the Void
Sunday, June 14, 2026 | 10:30 AM – 7:00 PM
Sant'Anna Complex - Fondamenta Sant'Anna 503, Castello, Venice
A day of celebration, gathering, and collective contribution dedicated to the idea of space as a common good.
The Venice Urban Lab association is organizing the event as a Satellite Event of the New European Bauhaus Festival 2026, a European initiative aimed at demonstrating how citizens can participate in building their communities, inspiring communities to rethink spaces, design better living environments, and promote sustainability and inclusivity.
The event will take place at the Sant'Anna Complex in Castello.
The Church of Sant'Anna, now closed, unusable, and abandoned, is a space of great historical and social value that could once again become a resource for the Castello district and for the entire city. For this reason, the event will take place in the public and accessible spaces adjacent to the church, transforming them for a day into a place of gathering, exchange, and participation, capable of concretely demonstrating that this common good could become a valuable space for civic culture.
Through the presentation of exemplary case studies on the revitalization of abandoned and underutilized spaces in Venice and other cities, along with discussions, workshops, storytelling, installations, curatorial activities, a community lunch, and social gatherings, citizens, associations, informal groups, and professionals are invited to share ideas and experiences, demonstrating how a shared space can foster social interaction, relationships, knowledge, creativity, empathy, and solidarity.
To learn more about the New European Bauhaus Festival 2026 and view all scheduled Satellite Events, visit the official website.
PROGRAMMA
10:30
11:00
12:00
13:30
15:00
16:00
17:00
19:00
Welcome and registration
Introduction
Satellite event of the Festival of the New European Bauhaus
Democratic engagement, temporary use and regeneration of abandoned and unused spaces as support for affordable housing, repopulation and vitality of the insular city.
Case Studies
Local associations, committees, and organizations present their experiences and projects aimed at revitalizing abandoned spaces.
An overview of abandoned and underutilized spaces in Venice.
Debate and public discussion
Towards a “zero waste” city: seeing an abandoned place as a space for the future.
Discussion with speakers, other associations and participants
Community lunch by the gastronomic collective Tocia
Creative workshops and games for kids and adults, yoga sessions, and activities focused on care,
co-design, and active listening.
For a few hours Sant’Anna comes alive and becomes a shared space open to experimentation for the district and by the district. Residents and participants are invited to create empathy with the space, to actively use it, bringing ideas, activities and initiatives to imagine, inhabit and take care together of a place that belongs to the city.
A presentation of projects, research, artistic works, and the ideas and reflections that emerged during the creative workshops and co-design activities.
Final sharing, networking and conviviality with aperitif
Collective dismantling
See you at Sant'Anna!
Sunday 14 June 2026 · Fondamenta Sant'Anna 503, Castello
Participation is free and open to all. Please register to help us plan the day effectively.
PARTNER
MEDIA PARTNER
INTERNATIONAL PARTNER
SUPPORTER
To learn more about the New European Bauhaus Festival 2026 and see all scheduled Satellite Events, visit the official website.
Venice Urban Lab had already organized a satellite event for the NEB Festival 2024 in Venice. The event, titled “Placemaking in Venice: Connecting People to Places,” brought together 50 people who shared ideas, discussed the future of the Santa Marta area, and took concrete action to shape it.
Venice Urban Lab's team:
Nicola Borgmann, Valentino Consiglio, Ena Franjic, Sidnia Garcia, Louise Harbaum, Ondine Kapala, Ekaterina Kuznetsova, Lucrezia Ludovici, Luca Mazzieri, Olenka Palomino, Sergio Pascolo, Sofia Pascolo, Elisa Pigella, Mirela Spasova, Giulia Todeschini