Inspired by similar international experiences, the objective of the O.P.U.S. project (acronym for Offsetting Polyvalent Utility Scaffolding) is the restoration of the Basilica della Salute, transforming the technical restoration operation into an opportunity for raising the necessary funds by organizing exhibitions, conferences and events more or less pertinent to the restoration during the period of construction, demonstrating and documenting the various phases of the process directly on the building site. O.P.U.S. therefore proposes to foster the possibility of self-financing by the construction company with a project for a temporary architectural work around the construction site of the Basilica, and a complex organization that may be considered as a cultural business whose mission is explicitly to make the restoration possible. The configuration of this organization may be articulated in various ways to include actors from the institutions and from the private sector.

The O.P.U.S project is informed by several basic principles:

- the initiative is always an application of the principle of conservation and its image remains congruent with the objective of the restoration;

- the eminently cultural nature of the initiative in its totality;

-the reversible, temporary, light and transparent character of the project in all its phases;

-the continuity and contiguity with the tradition of temporary Venetian architecture, represented by the early Ephemeral Theatres up to the more recent Teatro del Mondo by Aldo Rossi.

The temporary architectural structure of the project makes it possible to create multipurpose spaces around the basilica, incorporating them or locating them adjacent to the scaffolding around the building site: these spaces have all the characteristics required to host exhibitions cultural events, thereby attracting the interest of sponsors who could make a financial contribution to the restoration.

The structure in question is designed out of Innocenti scaffolding and wood, so that it looks unquestionably temporary and remains perfectly distinct from the architectural structure being restored; it will have a subdued impact on the architectural context, from both an esthetic and an engineering point of view, and be completely reversible in each stage of the restoration process.