Architecture

Expo Milano 2015, Future Food District by Carlo Ratti

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Expo Milano 2015, Future Food District by Carlo Ratti it has been modified: 2022-06-01 di jessica zannori

The exhibition center in Milan Expo 2015, , the Italian design studio Carlo Ratti Associati has designed a thematic pavilion entitled “Future Food District”.

The structure shows how technology can change our daily interactions with food, inside a digital supermarket where people can interact with, and purchase, the individual products.

"Each product has a precise story to tell"Says Carlo Ratti, Founding member of Carlo Ratti Associati, and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Today, this information reaches the consumer in a piecemeal way, but in the near future, we will be able to find out everything there is to know about the apple we are looking at: the tree it grew on, the carbon dioxide that he produced, the chemical treatments he received, and his journey to the supermarket shelf ”.

Configured to promote consumer habits, the interior of the pavilion resembles a warehouse with over 1.500 items displayed on large interactive tables. Visitors can see all the digital information on the products through the suspended mirrors, thanks to a system of dynamic data visualization designed by dotdotdot.

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"It's like augmented reality, seamless, without Google glasses or any other cumbersome interface, where people can meet and exchange products and ideas"Says Andrea Galanti, Project Manager at Carlo Ratti Associati. "In a way, it's like a return to the old market, where producers and consumers of food products saw each other and had real interactions."

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The exterior of the pavilion features the largest plotter in the world. The device, made of mechanical arms that move along two axes, prints directly on the facade with a spray paint of different colors, transforming it into a dynamic visualization of the data. The small square in front of the future supermarket showcases new ways of producing food, such as vertical hydroponic systems for growing vegetables, as well as algae and insect harvesting.

"Such advances in urban agriculture could really transform underused urban spaces into productive areas"Adds John de Niederhausern COO Carlo Ratti Associati. "If urban agriculture manages to find space in large urban centers, its effects could be disruptive, in terms of promoting new relationships between citizens and nature".

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