The temporary installation, called URBAN LOUNGE, will be featured within RoGUILTLESSPLASTIC, an exhibition curated by Rossana Orlandi within the cloisters of the Leonardo Da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milano
Designed by Pininfarina Architecture in partnership with Indexlab, engineering partnership Eco2zone, manufacturing partnership Exgineering and Design Differente, manufacturing partnership Eurocooling
Turin, 3 settembre 2021 – Pininfarina Architecture has developed a climate-responsive architectural structure to be unveiled at Fuorisalone 2021 in Milano. The structure, called URBAN LOUNGE, will be part of RoGUILTLESSPLASTIC, the international project curated by Rossana Orlandi that aims to raise awareness around the re-use and recycling of plastic.
URBAN LOUNGE is conceived as a responsive public space that can take advantage of the specific local climate and surroundings to maximize user comfort and active microclimate mitigation strategies. Exploring how urban outdoor spaces can be operated to fight against climate change, the installation improves outdoor comfort by introducing passive and active strategies that are tailored to the local climatic conditions: outdoor comfort is influenced by environmental parameters such as solar radiation, humidity, air quality and wind speed. Manipulating these parameters, Urban Lounge assesses outdoor comfort.
The overall structure is realized through the use of recycled and recyclable plastic. The goal is to demonstrate that plastic materials do not generate negative externalities as such, but that they can instead be extraordinary resources for a more sustainable future. The primary culprit of pollution is not plastic itself but its misuse and its abuse. The exhibition aims to educate to a no-waste behaviour and to overturn the general opinion about plastic by using design to transform debris into pure emotions.
The cladding, the substructure and the integrated furnishings of the installation are to be realized through a design for manufacturing methodology and digital manufacturing techniques. A recycled plastic fiber will be 3D printed to shape the structure’s fluid lines, blending them within their natural surroundings. Three main components of the installation are arranged around a magnificent tree to contribute, in a bond between nature and technology, to the quality improvement of the surrounding environment through an urban air purifier, a mist water sprayer and a circadian lighting system.
The urban air purifier contributes to air renewal while absorbing toxic substances; the water nebulization system keeps the environment humid, favoring the growth of plants while lowering the perceived temperature; the lighting and sound system emits sounds and images aimed at educating visitors to a more conscious use and consumption of plastic.
The installation will be open to the public from 4.9.2021 to 12.9.2021 within the main courtyard of the Leonardo Da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milano. The project has been developed thanks to the collaboration of Pininfarina with important technical partners, as outlined below.
Eco2zone
EcoAir Tower by Eco2zone is an air purification tower over 4 meters high and 2 basic which, thanks to an exclusive filtering system and ionized bars, generates benefits in terms of quality, reducing the average level of fine dust breathed in(particularly the Pm10 and the Pm2.5) from about 2.25g/h to 0.25g/h. Thanks to the high efficiency fine dust filters, the tower sucks the air from its top and returns it filtered of 95% of the pollutants. The innovation labs of Eco2Zone, part of Fervo Group, in line with the circular & sustainable economy fundations, link this unique tower technology with a remote controlled system which facilitates governance and best performances to give to the community an awesome microclime mitigation.
“EcoAir Tower also manages to collect the graphite present in fine powders, retaining it for future re-use in the creation of new objects such as tennis rackets and pencils. If we think of the air flow treated by EcoAir Tower of about 15,000 m3 per hour (over 131 million m3 of air per year) and an average annual value of 34 micrograms / m3 (Milan average) we are talking about a collection of about 6 kg of PM10 + PM2.5 fine powders per year, which correspond to over 2,000 pencils and 30 tennis rackets” says the engeineer Mr. Alessandro Belloni, Chairman of Eco2zone, E.S.Co of the FERVO group.
“The adoption of the EcoAir Tower system also allows you to recreate an optimal microclimate in the surrounding environment within its range of action (within 10 meters). In addition to being purified, the air also undergoes an ionization process that “revitalizes” it, creating an oasis around the tower in which environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity and air speed are restored, bringing benefits to humans and their well-being, ” concludes Mr Belloni.
Indexlab
Indexlab is a leading design and innovation research lab based in Italy at Politecnico di Milano. Its mission is to invent and launch innovative construction systems.
As pioneers of computational design and DfMA – Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, Indexlab researchers close the process chain that connects a construction idea to its production.
Within the event RoGUILTLESSPLASTIC, Indexlab presents its latest invention: the SUPERFRAME® construction system, the result of a successful research path conducted in collaboration with Gimac and Exgineering, and here integrated in the URBAN LOUNGE installation, designed in partnership with Pininfarina.
SUPERFRAME® is an example of how geometric complexity can be managed with simplicity, elegance and lightness. A system that solves a technical problem – the torsions in the frames that approximate curved surfaces – with a cutting-edge technological solution: the extrusion of the material according to paths that accommodate these torsions.
SUPERFRAME® is manufactured using a production process which employs recycled plastic through RAM – Robotic Additive Moulding – technology. The 3Dprinted frames can be coupled with any cladding material for interiors or exteriors, enabling countless configuration possibilities, and offering designers the greatest creative freedom. (www.indexlab.it/projects/superframe)
Exgineering and Gimac
It was 40 years ago, when the industry was running the “bigger and bigger” philosophy, that the first microinvasive medical devices where taking shape following a different “motto”, the “smaller and smaller” one. Crazy and hungry, Gimac begin to produce the smallest ever extruders, able to preserve chemical conditions and to condition phisical ones. It was about then, 35 years ago, when a 3d printer was used for an internal development work. 3D printing was not a topic yet, robotics was just something more than a mirage, Gimac decided to intensify its efforts, converting aerospace and defence tecnologybinto lifesaving technology. A handful of years ago, eXgineering was born, picking up immediately the challenge to further develop underexploited technologies.
That’s how another additive manufacturing machine was born, however, in this case it was born as an additive moulding, an industrial grade of 3D printing, starting from material and process rather than from robotic root, is able in this case to preserve polymer’s molecular weight and to condition its cristallinity, while conditioning cristallinity and deriving physical properties. Voxel by voxel the part grows and thanks to the so called “dynamic extrusion” process, it’s possible to set material per each voxel.
Design Differente
Design Differente is a vertical coworking / fablab built around the themes of circular economy. A contemporary and hybrid space, which aims to connect the can-do spirit of the area with the new developments in terms of sustainability by promoting a new design, the “DIFFERENT design”.
www.designdifferente.it | info@designidifferente.it
Euro Cooling
Euro Cooling System is a young and dynamic company that was born from the inventiveness of engineer Franco Grana and technicians with a unique experience of over 20 years in the nebulization sector.
Taking the opportunity to collaborate with Pininfarina, it presents the spray tower, a 3mt-high innovative and scenic structure.
A simple, efficient and natural system which, thanks to the principle of high pressure nebulization and patented nozzles, produces millions of water particles smaller than 10 microns.
These water micro particles, distributed in the air and exposed to the temperature, instantly evaporate, subtracting calories from the surrounding environment.
This system allows managing and restoring the ideal microclimate by cooling the air in an ecological, natural way and without wetting.
In addition to the cooling mode, further benefits come from its dust-and-pollen collection function, which restores the optimal level of relative humidity.
«Your ideal climate even outdoors» Franco Grana, Euro Cooling Systems owner and founder.
Pininfarina Architecture
A global icon of Italian style, Pininfarina is recognized for its unparalleled ability to create timeless works based on its values of Tech and Beauty. Pininfarina is based in Italy, and has offices worldwide, with a design scope that includes transportation, industrial design, architecture/interiors, and automotive design.
Pininfarina Architecture’s most recent architecture and interior design projects span over geographical locations such as Turkey (the Istanbul New Airport Air Traffic Control Tower), The United States (the 1100 Millecento luxury condo in Miami), Brazil (Cyrela, Vitra and Yachthouse, as well as the luxury twin towers in Balneario Camboriu), and Italy (the Juventus Stadium in Turin).
It has won several International architecture awards, most recently the 2020 American Architecture Award with Yachthouse, 2020 International Architecture Award for Sixty6, and the 2019 Red Dot Award for the City of Miami Bus Shelter Designs.
Based in Turin, with branches in Miami and Shanghai, Pininfarina Architecture works with a Team of 50 professionals – trained at the most prominent academic institutions and research centres in the world – with multidisciplinary backgrounds including, but not limited to, architecture, engineering, social sciences and interaction design, bound together through their professional experiences.
