Great Italian and foreign designers were invited “Inside of this Think tank”, in order to outline micro-architectures within which to promote the meeting/exchange of architecture and design, two disciplines that are increasingly mixed in a game of liquid and transversal contaminations.
In the picturesque Ca’ Granda’s Bramante-designed courtyards, Italo Rota (Special project: Interni x Expo 2015), Paolo Caputo, Jaime Hayon, Marco Piva, Philippe Stark, Kengo Kuma, Mario Trimarchi and Frida Doveil, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Marco Zanuso Jr, Iacopo Foggini, John Pawson, Matteo Thun and Consuelo Castiglioni, Luca Trazzi, Daniel Libeskind (trailer for the Futuropolis installation at Citylife in Via Durini), Paola Navone, have all interpreted their Think Tank and co-operated with Italian companies that are active on the innovation front.
Expo 2015 by Italo Rota – A pavilion, a map, a tale made of numbers, projects and visions to inform and imagine the next Expo 2015. A pavilion to sensitize the public on the theme: “Feeding the Planet. Energy for Life”. The pavilion toys with numbers and dimensions of Leonardo’s Man, also depicted on the cylinder’s outside, who becomes all of us. He becomes a colorful mankind ( the flags become a pie chart) looking for its future.
Alfabeti by Mario Trimarchi and Frida Doveil with Deborah Milano – The project is born from the transposition of Deborah Milano’s graphic language. Twelve light aluminium screens become true architectures for the city.
Revolution Air by Philippe Stark with Pramac – Wind micro-turbines are revolutionary for the innovative shape and its possible domestic use. Actually, it’s a real design product, with a refined look and suitable for micro-production, in line with the most advanced renewable energy production and distribution systems.
In the background is , Beauty Cave by Marco Piva with Jacuzzi, Tabu and VDA.
Arlecchino Urbano by Marco Zanuso jr con Giuseppe Raboni and Donati Group – It’s a contemporary sculpture/architecture. It’s a sort of shelter. A protective element. A house. Its shape draws inspiration from origami, carried out by means of large sheets of structural polychrome aluminium. The feeling is that the object changes depending on viewpoint.
In-visibile by D TAO with Bodega e Zibido Vetro – It’s an entirely mirrored container, to make it physical and at the same time invisible in the reflection of the surroundings. Inside there is a tunnel with sheet aluminium and mirrors, so that the image is multiplied to infinity. It’s is a installation to catch people’s perception.
The Hedgehog by Jean Michel Wilmotte with Cristina Rubinetterie e Ilva-IVM Group – Production Umicore-Vmsinc in collaboration with Ingegnoli and Nord Light-Artemide Group
Golden Fleece – Il Vello d’oro by Jacopo Foggini with Nice
Just Home – Semplicemente Casa By Paolo Caputo with Alessandro Finozzi, Maurizia Donadeo, Alberto Franzosi, with Franz Isella
House of Stone by John Pawson with Salvatori – If the exterior of this micro-architecture is about mass, stability, and security, the interior represents their decomposition. It’s a yearning for the infinite. The cuts on the ridge and on the walls open the interior to the changing play of sunlight and weather, dematerializing the stone’s weigh. Pawson used a special stone, Lithoverde, made by Salvatori and obtained from recycling production discards.
The Wooden Beacons- I fari di legno by Matteo Thun and Consuelo Castiglioni-Marni with Tom Lacey, Antonio Rodrigues and Hannah Foden for American Hardwood Export Council – Three installations, three beacons, talking about the entire life cycle of a product: from the idea to disposal. Three installations that combine architecture and fashion, fundamental and shared values like the safeguard of the environment. Wood, paper, fabric, resins. The beacon’s interiors are made by Marni.
Casalgrande Ceramic Clouds by Kengo Kuma with Casalgrande Padana – At the root of this poetic installation is the “void” sublimation and the cancellation of architecture. Absolute protagonist is a “wall” of organza that diagonally divides the courtyard, known as the “bagni delle donne”. A wall separates by definition and at the same time, for its unusual materiality, gathers. It simultaneously veils and unveils. If in the daylight hours it is a semitransparent wall, at night it is trasformed in a true screen on which to proyect video. In this contrasts and wrongfooting play, the garden is divided in two parts, one with ceramic pieces and the other one with siliceous stones. It’s an oriental concept of Yin and Yang.
T-Garden by Luca Trazzi with Cross Point and Eurojersey – An experimental installation made with technological light flowers of varying colors. The onlookers may interact and play with the component’s shape and colour.
