On the occasion of Milan Salone del Mobile, international design office CRA Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled “Living nature. La natura dell’abitare”, a garden pavilion where all four seasons cohabit at the same time, thanks to an innovative energy management system for climate control. The project, which stems from a concept by CRA and Studio Römer, will be open to the public in Milan’s main square from the 17th to the 25th of April, and aims to foster a new debate on sustainable design.

The 500 square-meter pavilion will house four natural, climatic microcosms that will enable all seasons of the year to unfold at precisely the same time, one next to the other. Visitors will be immersed in nature and experience its changes through the four different areas – Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

“Living Nature” represents the next chapter of CRA’s ongoing research on nature-city relationship – a topic widely explored in the “Green & the Grey” exhibition curated by CRA at Toronto’s EDIT Expo, in September 2017. The project intents to study the relationship between cities and nature, a recurring topic in Western history, from Ancient Greece to Ezebener Howard’s 20th century urban utopias. At the same time, the project experiments with energy management systems – leveraging on photovoltaic cells, accumulators and heat pumps – in order to allow unprecedented sustainable climate control strategies.

“In the 20th century, cities expanded outwards to conquer nature and the countryside. We believe that today’s challenge is the opposite – how can we bring nature back to the city and in the house”, says Carlo Ratti, founding partner at CRA and director of MIT Senseable City Lab.

Another key issue raised by “Living Nature” is sustainability: how to better manage energy flows to control the urban microclimate. The plants in the pavilion, selected by French botanist Patrick Blanc, are housed under a 5-meter high selective Crystal membrane that dynamically filters the sun based on input from light-reactive sensors. Above the pavilion, photovoltaic panels generate clean energy, providing the required energy to cool the winter area, or to heat the summer space. Batteries provide additional storage to smoothen high and low peaks of energy production.

“In light of climate change and the threat it poses to cities worldwide, we need to devise strategies for climate remediation to improve living conditions in our cities, defining a closer alliance between the natural and artificial“ says Antonio Atripaldi, project leader at CRA. “If climate control is often associated with excessive energy consumption, this project offers a radical change of perspective, demonstrating the feasibility of climate control technology that is also sustainable, with vast potential for future applications.”

 

 

 

Text from the architects of CRA Carlo Ratti Associati and the press release.

“Living Nature. La Natura dell’Abitare” from the 17th to the 25th of April 2018.
Piazza del Duomo, Milan
Location: Piazza del Duomo, Milan
Commissionner: Salone del Mobile Milano
Architects: CRA Carlo Ratti Associati (Carlo Ratti, Giovanni de Niederhausern, Antonio Atripaldi as project leader, Chiara Borghi, Nicola Scaramuzza, Rui Guan, Anna Scaravella)
Renderings: CRA Graphic team (Gary di Silvio, Gianluca Zimbardi)
Construction: PAC Team Expo
Concept Design: Carlo Ratti Associati and Studio Römer
Design Development: Carlo Ratti Associati
Scenography: Studio Römer
Engineering Consultants: Ai Studio
Construction Consultant: Isabella Artana
Landscape and Botanics: Patrick Blanc, Flavio Pollano
Graphics: studio FM Milano