A remarkable 400-square-meter floating plaza called AquaPraça has officially arrived in Brazil's Amazon region, where it now sits anchored along Guajará Bay as one of the most striking architectural features of the COP30 climate summit. The innovative platform, designed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon, was unveiled in Belém through a collaboration between Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, and the COP30 Presidency. The floating structure serves as a unique civic space where visitors can literally experience rising water levels at eye level, making climate change tangible and immediate.
The platform represents both a diplomatic gesture and a permanent gift to the local community. After COP30 concludes, AquaPraça will remain permanently in the Amazon River system as Italy's donation to the State of Pará. This floating infrastructure will continue to serve as a cultural hub for public programming focused on climate issues, creativity, and community engagement, ensuring its impact extends far beyond the conference period.
AquaPraça's journey began as a simplified prototype during the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, but it has now arrived in Brazil in its complete and fully realized form. The final version features a lightweight roof structure and redesigned circulation systems specifically adapted to handle Belém's challenging tidal conditions. The Amazon Delta experiences dramatic water level shifts of up to four meters daily, regularly exposing the sandy, sediment-rich bottom of the bay—a natural phenomenon that the architects deliberately chose to highlight and incorporate into their design.
The plaza operates according to Archimedes' principle of buoyancy, rising and falling naturally with the estuarine currents where the Amazon's freshwater meets saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean. Its design features gently sloping planes that tilt toward the water, railings that frame ever-changing views of the shifting shoreline, and edges that function as active interfaces rather than static boundaries. This dynamic relationship with water transforms the platform into a living demonstration of humanity's need to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
During COP30, AquaPraça serves as an extension of the historic House of Eleven Windows, creating an informal waterfront forum for symposia, public talks, film screenings, and cultural programs associated with the Italian Pavilion. The structure's steel framework was engineered and fabricated in just five months by Cimolai, featuring clean geometric lines that create a striking contrast against the soft horizon of Guajará Bay. From a distance, the platform appears as a bright, low-lying rectangle hovering on the water surface, while closer inspection reveals a porous interior with strategically shaded zones, stepped surfaces, and outward-facing views toward the river, mangroves, and passing boats.
The platform's materials respond beautifully to the Amazon's unique environmental conditions. In the region's high humidity and diffuse tropical light, the metal surfaces take on a cool matte finish that reflects sky tones without creating harsh mirror-like reflections. This thoughtful material choice ensures the structure integrates harmoniously with its natural surroundings while maintaining its modern architectural identity.
"Ecology and freedom are not in contradiction, but must be part of a common destination towards the future of humanity," stated Minister Antonio Tajani during the opening ceremony in Belém. He emphasized that "the floating Italian square will stay in the Amazon as a symbol of friendship and cooperation between the two countries," highlighting the diplomatic significance of this architectural gesture.
For the design team at CRA, AquaPraça represents part of a larger curatorial narrative that began in Venice. Carlo Ratti describes the installation as "a multi-chapter experiment in circularity and mobility," explaining that "the project was always conceived as a journey: a structure with many lives. From Venice to Belém as Italy's pavilion for COP30, and will ultimately remain in the Amazon as permanent cultural infrastructure. This is the essence of circularity—the continual reuse and reinvention over time."
The Höweler + Yoon team approaches the platform as a physical metaphor for environmental balance. "AquaPraça lets visitors meet the sea at eye level," says Eric Höweler. "Its sloping surfaces and shifting levels embody a delicate equilibrium." J. Meejin Yoon expands on the concept of collective responsibility, describing it as "a platform, both literal and figurative, for deepening our collective understanding and experience of sea level rise and the impacts of climate change on global cities and communities—and seeking collective solutions."
The project's compressed timeline represents a remarkable achievement in international collaboration and engineering. Cimolai, Italy's advanced steel construction company, completed the structural design, assembly, and certification in just five months while coordinating with engineering and technical teams across multiple time zones. "The real challenge was to complete the platform in record time," reflects Cimolai president Marco Sciarra, highlighting the logistical complexity of delivering such a sophisticated structure to the Amazon region.
The final structure measures approximately 400 square meters and is supported by a buoyant steel chassis specifically stabilized to handle the Amazon Delta's significant tidal oscillations. The roof system hovers lightly over the main deck, providing essential shade while keeping horizon views unobstructed. Circulation pathways strategically widen at corners to create natural gathering spaces, while the perimeter frames water-level views that transform throughout each day's tidal cycle.
The platform's relationship with water creates a constantly changing experience for visitors. At low tide, AquaPraça appears to lift dramatically above exposed sediment and mudflats, while at high tide, it sits just centimeters above the water surface. This proximity makes the city's hydrological rhythms physically palpable, creating an immediate and visceral connection between visitors and the environmental forces that climate change is intensifying worldwide.
AquaPraça's evolution between its Venice debut and Belém installation demonstrates significant refinement in both materials and public function. In Venice, the project appeared as a minimal steel diagram—essentially a preview of what was to come. In Belém, it has transformed into a fully programmatic space operating as both urban infrastructure and diplomatic stage, ready to facilitate meaningful dialogue about humanity's climate future in one of the world's most critical ecosystems.
