Designing with Rights Translating the Rights of Nature into Spatial Practice in the Venice Lagoon

The Venice Lagoon faces growing environmental degradation and socio-cultural erosion, while existing protection frameworks remain insufficient. This article examines the recognition of the Lagoon as a rights-bearing subject and explores how this recognition can be translated into spatial practice. Through a design-led methodology, existing practices and the Lagoon’s key elements are assessed using a socio-ecological compatibility matrix informed by the rights of nature. Three territorial use modes are then addressed through the design principles of expand, transform and replace, testing how spatial practice can link legal recognition and territorial change.