The winning ideas of the YAC University Island competition

Located a few kilometers from the San Marco bell tower in Venice, the historic island of Poveglia has remained abandoned for nearly 50 years until the Italian Government recently decided it should be revived. Inspired by this, Young Architects Competitions set up the University Island competition, which invited architects across the globe to envision how they would revamp Poveglia into a top research university campus where students can study and enjoy themselves.

Entrants from 104 countries participated in the competition. The notable jury — which included Peter Cook and Snøhetta's Patrick Luth, among others — selected the three prize winners as well as four Gold Honorable Mentions. Ten Honorable Mentions were also announced.

Check out the winning ideas below.

PRIZE WINNERS

1st prize: D.Vision Architecture featuring Kiana Jalali, Matteo Pagani, Francesco Lanza and Alessandro Vitale | Italy, Iran

Team D.VIsion Architecture won first place for their entry, which demonstrated “a strong relation between existing architectures and landscape, amazingly integrating the old to the new.”

2nd prize: Embe Office featuring Emanuele Bruno and Beatrice Galimberti | Italy

Embe Office won second place for submitting a project that developed “a meaningful dialogue between existing and new buildings in set in four tactics: hinging the existent, surrounding, sticking, and isolating it”.

3rd prize: Opps+2c featuring Francesco Polci, Filippo Pecorai, Antonio Salvi, Paola Chiriatti and Chiara Caroli | Italy

Team Opps+2c was selected for third place for their proposal that “harmoniously [combined] the several functions of the campus, while showing high respect for [the] existing architectures and landscape.”

GOLD HONORABLE MENTIONS

Find the Honorable Mention entries in the gallery below. You can also find more details of the winning, honorable mention, and finalist proposals here.

All images courtesy of Young Architects Competitions.