SmarTown

The intangible beauty of energy

Our interaction with energy is evolving thanks to its more responsible use and the new opportunities offered by an increasingly efficient and innovative connectivity.

The intangible beauty of energy was represented with the installation designed by the young architects of the SOS-School of Sustainability under the supervision of Mario Cucinella Architects, as part of House in Motion 2018 organized by the Interni magazine. The installation, created by Conversion Agency and Designers srl, transformed the Botanical Garden of Brera into a green city where nature and history coexist with the most advanced urban models. Visitors were encouraged to immerse themselves in a multitude of scenic houses overlooking the skyline of an imaginary city.

The smart city was composed of 700 modular units, installed at different heights and with varying densities, exactly as a real city and the little houses were divided in 4 typologies that represent specific urban functions, continuously exchanging energy between each-other. The modular elements were made by.

The skyline was composed by 6 scenographic elements that shape a typical urban environment. Each element was built around a modular steel frame with printed dibond panels on the backside and mirror dibond panels on the frontside to reflect and visually double the smarty city.

The central panel served as the control room for this virtual city. Visitors had the opportunity to interact with the 700 modular elements and control their luminous flux, understanding the fundamental relationship between the intelligent house and the entire urban system. In addition, 33 special houses (slightly bigger than the other 700) distributed along the garden encourage an individual interaction with 11 snapshots of life in the smart home, showing visitors the new possibilities of management and control of the their domestic environment offered by the technology.

Location: Botanical Garden of Brera
Year: from 16 to 28 April 2018
Type: Installation
Client: ENI Gas e Luce in partnership with Hive
Project: SOS – School of Sustainability with Mario Cucinella Architects
Team: Mario Cucinella, Andrea Rossi, Angelo Ungarelli (MCA) Massimo Imparato, Maria Pazzaglia, Claudia Galimberti, Valerio Vincioni, Claudia Bonora, Carlo Maria D’Amico (SOS)
Photo credit: Mario Cucinella Architects; Designers srl
Visual: Francesco Naimoli
Production and assembly: Conversion Agency, Designers srl

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