Venice is not only a unique place in terms of history and heritage, but today it is the nerve centre of a hyper-territory that is embedded in this vast metropolitan area and, at the same time, it is a laboratory and an international stage where university research, businesses and a strong museum presence can express an unprecedented relationship between art, science and technology. Added to this is the fact that Venice and its territory are seen as the capital of environmental fragility and of and of the challenges for a different sustainability to be applied throughout the planet (Luca Molinari)