In collaboration with UNHCR and the ECC, Henriquez Partners Architects imagines GHETTO, a theoretical architectural project which proposes the resettlement of 1,000 refugees into Venice financed by the sale of timeshare condominiums for tourists from America. The inspiration for the project came from the site of the ECC exhibition in Palazzo Mora located in Cannaregio, home of the Jewish ghetto, and our desire to illustrate our studio’s credo that architecture has the potential to be a poetic expression of social justice.

In the effort to explore our responsibility as global citizens to care for one another and to explore financial mechanisms that redistribute equity to provide social benefits, GHETTO is a theoretical series of four architectural islands that demonstrates these intentions through an innovative economic model. Each of the islands is positioned near one of four compelling sites: The Venetian ghetto, Stazione di Santa Lucia, Piazza San Marco, and the Arsenale. These sites were carefully selected to parallel four key-influencing factors in Venice: the Jewish ghetto as project inspiration, the refugee crisis, Venetian over-tourism, and challenging the traditional role of the architect.