Watermarks of architecture

Engaging Joseph Brodsky’s compelling novella Watermark (1992) — a wintertime account of Venice — this paper unpacks embodied experiences in a place of paramount cultural and historical heritage. The literary language captures the city’s emotional character — portraying how it affects our consciousness and subsequent behaviours — by describing affective atmospheres that emerge on the threshold of architecture and its embodied perception. The seasonal narration, moreover, allows for a unique glimpse into the city’s architectural heritage, which is most commonly appreciated by visitors and tourists during spring or summer. With architectural discourse nowadays embracing the importance of atmospheres and narratives for the understanding of place and culture, Watermark tangibly advocates for the city’s affective emotional power as a unique heritage to preserve. By doing so, it guides architects towards a design sensitivity open to the ephemerality of spatial moods. Distinct moments of encounter between the city’s urban design and water, Venice’s architecture and its humidity, as well as the place’s imposing materiality in the cold, provide an understanding of how a place of memory like Venice is produced and experienced.