An installation looking towards the future, between design, architecture and technology: at the Fuorisalone in Milan the ways of living and living on different scales are rethought, from the private one to the city.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock… time is running out.
This is what we have left to recalibrate our relationship with the planet, limiting our impact on the environment and the consumption of resources. This is what we have available to shape alternative lifestyles and lay the foundations for new balances, based on a more ethical and sustainable approach. No area is separated from the other in this epochal reconfiguration, in a sort of domino effect that from production systems involves the city and extends to the private sphere of living. A great revolution taking place in our days is that which concerns precisely the cultivation systems with the aim of limiting the consumption of resources, primarily land (to date 80% of the land destined for agriculture is already cultivated) and water (70% of fresh water is used in agriculture): a turning point that challenges traditional practices in favor of new virtuous and eco-sustainable techniques.
BP + P Boffa Petrone & Partners, the design studio of the Building Group, and Daniele Fiori – DFA Partners, an architecture studio specializing in redevelopment projects and sustainable solutions, present the site specific installation HANG. Seeding the future, dedicated to the world of soilless crops as a response to the alarming scenario that is characterizing our time.
The name of the project is evocative and relies on the drama of the current situation – a planet in which the survival of living forms is seriously questioned in the absence of urgent and no longer postponable remedies – and the solution that derives from “floating roots” – or hanging, from the English “hang” – elements that characterize the new production methods.
In Via Tortona 21, at the Milan headquarters of the Building Group, specialized in prestigious real estate and redevelopment of historic buildings, it will be possible to discover the world of soilless crops thanks to an experiential setting in which to rediscover the fascinating world of plants and, in particular, their roots. In the space, an attic floor reminiscent of a large greenhouse, it will be possible to closely observe an aeroponic cultivation laboratory and learn more in detail the advantages that these practices can offer, including low consumption of energy, land and water as well as a high level of sanitation and great compatibility with the living environment. It is, in fact, a futuristic process where design, architecture, technology and innovation converge and that the Building Group and Daniele Fiori – DFA Partners, with the support of Agricooltur, have also brought to the city context, in the Milanese residential complex Forrest in Town , adjacent to the Naviglio Grande in Milan, the first to produce food for the residential community, thus laying the foundations for a new form of urban configuration with cultivation centers within the city. We are at the dawn of a new design paradigm that will help define, in addition to the aspects already analyzed, also consumption and nutrition.
Precisely for this reason, during the Design Week, in the headquarters in via Tortona there will also be space for food design by IFSE, Italian Food Style Education which for the occasion will present a menu in which the aeroponic products supplied by Agricooltur will be interpreted with sophisticated combinations to show the versatility of an off-ground cultivation, both in food and beverage.
The week will also be enriched by talks and insights on the topic of sustainability, the relationship between man and nature and the importance of restoring biodiversity in the city with the participation of Oscar Farinetti, Leonardo Caffo and Eugenio Cesaro (Eugenio in Via Di Gioia).
«We are pleased to host the HANG installation at our offices in Milan, the result of the collaboration with DFA Partners, with whom we share the need for living more and more on a human, environmental and future scale” declares Piero Boffa , President of the Building Group. “Saving resources, circularity and green redevelopment are watchwords that make our vision of a future ecological city with low environmental impact and in tune with our planet even more concrete. »
«When I saw the HANG brand – says architect Daniele Fiori – I had the perception of something “dramatic”! I thought: it’s like hanging! It is like our condition, it is what we have produced for our children to date.
We are called to intervene, each of us, to reverse this suicidal path. Architecture has the power to do this and to make our habitat increasingly sustainable. The idea of cultivating above ground is a solution capable of producing change, bringing this technology into the city revolutionizes our way of relating to the urban context, inserting it within a housing complex opens up scenarios that were unimaginable until recently. . And why not use unused spaces, why not fill the abandoned places of the city! And here is the first step: this is our help, our idea, what seems to us a duty of gratitude to participate in the salvation of the world that hosts us! »
«In Agricooltur – explains Bartolomeo Marco Divia, CEO of Agricoolture, we have set ourselves a very specific goal: to improve the world we live in through a more sustainable approach to cultivation and the creation of new consumption models. It is a far-reaching ambition, a path that we have decided to undertake starting from the beginning: from the roots.
By combining agronomy, technological innovation and research, we develop patented systems for aeroponic cultivation, an innovative method that avoids the use of the land and avoids the use of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. The plants receive a spray of water and nutrients directly on their roots, thus boasting a water saving of 95% compared to traditional crops.
Our aeroponic systems are designed to adapt perfectly to urban fabrics thanks to the modularity and design that distinguishes them: from squares to abandoned areas, from restaurants to residential complexes, we install greenhouses and technological modules that maintain the ideal environment for growth and maintenance of plants. This is how, by bringing agriculture to the city, the concept of “zero kilometer” is tempered to become “zero centimeter”.»
