French designer Philippe Starck has designed the Dream of Winter Gondola as part of a program to encourage Venetian creatives to use design as a tool for innovation.
Named Dream of Winter Gondola, Starck's modern gondola ? a traditional flat-bottomed rowing boat ? was designed to "merge the identity of Italian beauty and heritage".
It was created for VeniSIA, a corporate accelerator program at Ca' Foscari University of Venice that aims to inspire students and local Venetians to pursue creative actions and strategies for innovation.
A 3D drawing of the gondola is currently being exhibited at Ca' Foscari University of Venice's Hub of Strategy Innovation.
Starck's Dream of Winter Gondola was created for the corporate accelerator VeniSIA "The gondola is a beautiful version of a dream," Starck told Dezeen. "The gondola, by its global image, is an extremely sophisticated technology."
"I have a lot of admiration and respect for the gondola, one of the most complex boats in the world as its design is completely asymmetric but nevertheless its weight is perfectly balanced and can go straight even in the hardest conditions," he added.
Starck, who has lived on the Venetian island of Burano for the past 50 years, envisioned the updated gondola being constructed from laminated compressed bamboo due to the durability and strength of the material.
"The laminated compressed bamboo is used for its extreme strength and rigidity, its absolute in...