The unbuilt Ponte dell'Accademia in Venice designed by Oscar Niemeyer

The subject of this research comprises two projects in Italy by the Brazilian architects Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Loeb. These projects where envisioned following a modern design path able to create structure and concept but at the same time a utopian character of unbuilt works. The Ponte dell’accademia in Venice, was designed in 1985 by Niemeyer, when he was asked to think about a new link between the two banks of Canal Grande by Giandomenico Romanelli. On the other hand, Le Murate project was developed in Florence in 1987 by Loeb who took part into the international competition. The work by Oscar Niemeyer, besides being the subject of a large bibliography, was a topic of research for some years by the authors regarding unbuilt projects, design, geometry and parametric modelling. On the other hand, Roberto Loeb, an important architect in the Brazilian scenario, is described by a book about his complete work (ROSSO, 2011) and was the subject of an academic research guided by one of the authors in 2018. About unbuilt architecture some authors are important reference (Larson,2000; Galli;Mühlhoff,2000; Sdegno 2008, 2011; Foscari,2010; Maggio, 2017; Spallone, 2017; Tagliari,Perrone,Florio, 2017), and also about utopian architectural drawings, as George Collins (1979), Fraser and Henmi (1993), Robert Harbison (1991), among others. This research is structured mainly on two topics: Brazilian architects who have developed projects in Italy, and the analysis of projects and utopian drawings of unbuilt works. The study was structured in stages to reach its objectives: identification of Brazilian architects who developed projects in Italian cities; Bibliographical survey and readings on the work of the selected architects; Survey of projects and search for drawings; Organization of designs and projects by theme; Analysis of the drawings and verification of the project representation; Re-drawing, physical and digital modelling. The aim of this research is to increase the knowledge about the proposals conceived by Brazilian architects for Italian cities by investigating these projects. The careful analyses of the drawings disclose the designer’s thinking about architecture, art and city. The objectives were to analyze the projects, from the original drawing, to reconstruct the digital model, the physical model by 3D printer, create a photomontage in order to study the impact of this XX century form in the historical scenario of the related cities. The study of unbuilt works contributes to the understanding of the project imagined by modern architects and the insertion in the historical city. The research final outputs will be the reconstructive digital and physical model, photomontage, analyses and discussion of these projects, identifying concepts and solutions.