AQUASYMPHONY: WHEN THE DESIGN ENCOURAGES THE ENVIRONMENTAL CULTURE

A project by Davide Vercelli and Fondazione BioHabitat for the Fuorisalone. An occasion to put FIMA’s green philosophy in a concrete form.

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CONDIVIDI

Going further. Imaging the future through a new way of designing that concerns not only the products, but it steers toward alternative lifestyles, compatible with company’s values and green philosophy.
FIMA accepted Superdesign Show’s ‘’Looking ahead’’ challenge for the Fuorisalone Milano, taking part to an emblematic event in the big hub of Superstudio Più: ‘’Aquasymphony. Discover the sound of water’’.

Background theme is the sustainability and the will to promote an environmental culture open to contaminations and able to modify everyday habits. With the green thinking, which becomes the structural element for each design project. And of future life.

DESIGN AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE PROJECT SHARED BETWEEN PARTNERS

Aquasymphony is an inter-disciplinary project, involving partners belonging to distant sectors, chosen by their ability to interpret the bond among sustainability, design and craftsmanship in an effective way.

The event originates from the meeting of two people characterized by different personalities and sensibilities, but united by the urgency to voice their own design thought.
On one side there is Gianluca Cristoni, president of Latifoglia and Fondazione BioHabitat, which, as well expressed by his mission, is ‘’a green construction site where it is possible to develop and to improve innovative projects, able to connect urban development and respect for the environment, in an environmental-friendly point of view’’.

On the other side there is Davide Vercelli, eclectic designer and tireless FIMA’s art director, whose GREEN vocation we have repeatedly emphasized (GREEN DESIGN: DESIGNING SUSTAINABILITY FOR PRODUCTS & SPACES).

The idea was to recreate a tropical forest in the very heart of Superstudio, a charming and mysterious space, where the visitor was accompanied in a sensory path among Strelitzias, hundred-year-old and six-meter-tall banana-trees, huge Juccas and Cica Revolutas, led just by the sound of water. Musical instruments chosen for the event were the enchanting Battoloro’s Handpans, handmade articles with different sonorous areas and touch sensitive. They were played by water drops to create never the same melodies, yet perfectly syntonized with the surrounding nature.

The pouring rain falling on the Handpans was created by FIMA Melograno headshower, right designed by Davide Vercelli in collaboration with Melogranoblu (discover more on Melograno).
Almost like blown glass sculptures made of water and light, Melograno’s spheres were hanging in different heights and were perfectly integrated with the surrounding plants, which enveloped or hid them in the expositive path. The water flow of each FIMA’s headshower was also precisely designed: a tangle of overlapping water lines created by the special Mikado aerators, for a large and generous water supply with a radius of action of almost 1 meter.

Melograno is a proposal of the Wellness Attitude catalogue (download here) characterized by a strong innovative print, thanks to its ability to unify the most spectacular design aspects with the attention to the environment. The water consumption is reduced and does not exceed 15 litres per minute, keeping the comfort level high.

The balance between design and sustainability also leads the choice of Serralunga, which has ‘’furnished’’/decorated Aquasymphony forest with outsized vases designed by famous authors, such as Zara Hadid, Rodolfo Dordoni, Jean Marie Massaud and Philippe Starck. The plastic used is a second-life material: rotationally-moulded polyethylene (LLDPE), resulting in products resistant to thermic shocks, atmospheric agents, impacts and U.V. rays.
These are vases that can be reduced again to plastic dust to give life to new objects in the context of a virtuous circular economy.

AN INSTALLATION BALANCED BETWEEN ENTERTAINMENT AND DIVULGATION, AWARDED AT THE FUORISALONE DESIGN AWARD

Aquasymphony is the perfect example of a design event able to involve the visitor immediately, but leaving a message to revise, which becomes a projection toward the future.

Entering a rain forest accompanied by the sound of water is an immersive experience and undoubtedly alienating compared to the everyday life. But the contact with rare tropical trees, bizarre considering our latitude, spontaneously leads the thought to the nature’s extraordinariness and, in a larger point of view, to the world that surrounds us. An invitation to think about the biodiversity and the necessity to preserve our planet’s delicate ecosystem as much as possible. The sounds produced by the water also emphasise this uniqueness: no sound sequence is the same as those that came before, nor to those that will come after. Also like the trees, each is one of a kind for its characteristics, dimensions, and life.

There is no absolute main character in the installation, as in nature every element is balanced with the surrounding environment, in this case to leave large space to communication.

Aquasymphony has been without any doubt an incisive project from the experiential point of view, as testified by the number of visitors and the received sharings, but it wants to be even more so in terms of divulgation.

For this reason, we are particularly grateful for the price received from the community of Fuorisalone.it, which has chosen it among the 20 most significant events of Milano Design Week, giving right to Aqasymphony a Special Mention for Communication.

For FIMA it is a further step to emphasise how the design mission can not be bounded just to the product. It is necessary to design with a larger approach, careful to favour conscious ways of use and habits oriented to a bigger environmental sustainability. And this is one of the key principles of the company’s green philosophy.

See AQUASYMPHONY again >> LOOK THE VIDEO
Fuorisalone Design Awards >> DISCOVER AQUASYMPHONY on Fuorisalone.it

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