TalksSea Songs

The ocean has always defined its dimension in opposition to land.
Ports—its points of human landing—constitute sites of connection with a world that is at once traversed and still largely unexplored: the planet’s largest arena, where myth and politics converge alongside flows of goods, minerals, and people. For this reason, the ocean and its ports also offer a privileged perspective from which to speak about land and the planet as a whole: a repertoire of stories drawn from both the surface and the depths of the liquid planet.

Sea Songs is a series of talks dedicated to recent publications that address, from different perspectives, the themes of contemporary operational coastlines—often characterized by the presence of large port infrastructures—and the sea as a field of research and experimentation for architecture and urban design, in the context of climate change and current environmental emergencies.

The aim of Sea Songs is to trace a trajectory of research and design that, starting from architecture, opens toward interdisciplinary horizons, engaging disciplines such as geography, ecology, and anthropology.

Through the presentation of recent publications, released between 2023 and 2026 by European publishers, the series highlights the consolidation of a field of studies focused on coasts and seas, one that adopts the lenses of space, architecture, and cartographic representation to interpret complex phenomena that are today central to the scale of planetary urbanization.

Each talk will focus on a specific publication, presented and discussed by the author or authors in dialogue with an invited guest with expertise in the topics addressed. The discussion and debate with the audience will aim to activate reflections that operate both at a global scale and within the local context of Venice and its lagoon.

Talk I
Landscapes of the Cluster. A Spatial Approach to Ports
Beatrice Moretti in conversation with Isabella Traeger (PhD C., Politecnico di Milano, DAStU)
April 1st 2026, 6:00–7:00 p.m.

Talk II
Barena Bianca
Fabio Cavallari (Founder, Chef, Head of Training and Education, Barena Bianca, Venice) and Oliwia Spiralska (Head of Food and Community Projects, Barena Bianca, Venice) in conversation with Beatrice Moretti and Matteo Vianello
April 22th, 2026, 6:00–7:00 p.m.

Talk III
The Ocean as Ground. An Offshore Theory on Urbanisation
Matteo Vianello in conversation with Lodovica Guarnieri (Associate Lecturer, Royal College of Art, London)
April 29th, 2026, 6:00–7:00 p.m.