• 2020

    Udategia, in bask, means the place where summer is produced and kept. This temporary pavilion was built in two and half days of pandemia in December 2020, with the help of a small group of talented, dedicated young architects on the Institute of Bask Architects terrace for the Food Hack Lab. The Pavillion will will "produce" the "summer" and its products via automated hydroponics. The Pavillion has been realized and assembled on location with simple means and material. With a height of 540cm, 300cm of with and 350cm of length, the structure is built with small timber profiles covered with polypropylene panels to protect the food growing from wind and salty water. The pavilion is placed on the terrace of the Institute of the Basks Architects in the historical centre of San Sebastian, and it is facing the iconic beach of "la concha". The pavilion is designed to grow food and herbs, which will be offered to the public during small summer events.
    Workshop

    UDATEGIA.
    Temporary Greenhouse Pavilion, Institute for Bask Architecture, San Sabastian, Spain.

    Udategia, in bask, means the place where summer is produced and kept.
    This temporary pavilion was built in two and half days of pandemia in December 2020, with the help of a small group of talented, dedicated young architects on the Institute of Bask Architects terrace for the Food Hack Lab. The Pavilion will “produce” the “summer” and its products via automated hydroponics.

  • 2019

    "Le Confessioni di Caliostro" is a notebook contribution to raise awareness on the theme of creativity as a tool for social change and to spread the culture of sharing and giving. It is now part of the Moleskine Foundation collection Atwork: pieces of work created by different authors and thinkers on Moleskine notebooks and donated to the Foundation to help support its activities. Notebooks are for me a place of freedom through which you “become” who you are, crossing the pages like glades where magical rites are consumed. These drawings are the patient search for a source where colours, signs, ideas and visions, materialize as a small crack of playful freedom stolen from reason. I think of these drawings as a look that penetrates the thick and impregnable walls of a fortress as the Rocca di San Leo in the cell of Cagliostro. The Moleskine's collection "Atwork" reflects the variety, wealth and complexity of contemporary creative thinking, through the largest collection of author notebooks of our time. It gathers the contributions of artists, designers, architects, musicians, filmmakers, illustrators, intellectuals and philosophers, who – page after page – have filled notebooks with thoughts, sketches, images, often turning them into artifacts completely different from the original. The notebook is the device, the limit, the origin. The Foundation is committed to showcasing the collection at international art events, festivals, exhibitions, and Biennales to give as much visibility to the artists as possible and, at the same time, to sustain fundraising initiatives.
    Collection Acquisition

    MOLESKIN "ATWORK" NOTEBOOK CONTRIBUTION.
    (Le Confessioni di Caliostro). Collection Acquisition.

    "Le Confessioni di Caliostro" is a notebook contribution to raise awareness on the theme of creativity as a tool for social change and to spread the culture of sharing and giving. It is now part of the Moleskine Foundation Atwork collection: pieces of work created by different authors and thinkers on Moleskine notebooks and donated to the Foundation to help support its activities.

  • 2018

    The pavilion is conceived as an architectonic contribution to the iconographic tradition of the Jungfrau series initiated by Paul Klee, Arnold Böcklin, and Ferdinand Hodler and carried until today by many other artists. Characteristically for this kind of works, the object’s shape is inspired by the mountain panorama. The Pavillion is designed for the Bernese community of steffisburg to host different open-air cultural events of the triennial festival ‘art container, With its 250 square meters of covered surface and its 9 meters height, the ‘jungfrau pavilion’ has Jungfrau, an architectural scale developed in collaboration with the local authorities who carried the project to completion fundraising to technical engineering. Designed as a theatrical device, the structure presents itself as a lay cathedral surrounded by rapeseed fields to host daily liturgies such as concerts, speeches, gastronomic degustations and open leisure activities that celebrate the sublimeness of the alpine Bernese landscape and territory. The pavilion features ad-hoc furniture realized with concrete casting boards to match the surrounding yellow rapeseed flower fields. The wooden roof structure consists of an ‘open truss’ system that allows the suspension of a rooftop membrane that inverts the load forces and optimizes the natural structure resistance performance of the wood construction. The pavilion is designed as a temporary structure that can be efficiently rebuilt in different contexts and host various cultural open-air events.
    Architecture

    JUNGFRAU PAVILION. Temporary Pavilion, Steffisburg, Switzerland.

    The pavilion is conceived as an architectonic contribution to the iconographic tradition of the Jungfrau series initiated by Paul Klee, Arnold Böcklin, and Ferdinand Hodler and carried until today by many other artists.

  • 2018

    La Città Libera is a performative installation that aims to explore participatory "off-grid neighbourship" architectural forms. La Città Libera consists of a toolbox that stimulates the general public's imagination to develop participative self-sufficient urbanization. The toolbox contains 1:50 architectural elements to assemble a hypothetical housing concept to host eight people at "swiss living standards". The toolbox provides a primary spatial taxonomy that allows exploring the syntax of a self-sufficient architectural language: walls, volumes, columns, different roof shapes options, windows, photovoltaic panels, phitodepuration surfaces, solar panels, an edible garden and a tree. Each participant will be provided with a toolbox to "develop" an urban plot next to their hypothetical neighbours. In this way, participants will explore how collaborative development can maximize self-sufficient strategies and solutions. The workshop can be held with the different mixed target group for a minimum of forty-five minutes, depending on the participants' interest and age. La Città Libera explores the long tradition of high-quality, affordable housing construction initiated by many authors since the 1950s, introducing the participatory element of space construction and its' and energetic sustainability. The research started after the Italian Pavillion commission of an off-grid pavilion to activate land confiscated from the Mafia in the south of Italy for the exhibition "Taking Care" at XV Venice Biennale in 2016. After that, "La Città Libera" has been prototyped on several occasions and within different institutions, including ETH Wohnforun Zurich and FHNW Academy of Art and Design. The current formula has been presented as a "vermittlung" concept in the Swiss Arts Awards' architecture section in Art Basel in 2018. Each day of the event, four workshops have been held to engage the public and explore the challenges of off-grid architecture and its consequences.
    Architecture

    LA CITTÁ LIBERA.
    Off-Grid Participatory Design City Making.

    La Città Libera is a performative installation that aims to explore participatory "off-grid neighbourship" architectural forms.
    La Città Libera consists of a toolbox that stimulates the general public's imagination to develop participative self-sufficient urbanization. The toolbox contains 1:50 architectural elements to assemble a hypothetical housing concept to host eight people at "Swiss living standards".

  • 2017

    Edible Eden is a piece made for the 100c Wastewater Bottle Art Exhibition, at K11 Design Store, Hong Kong. Artists and designer were asked to transform a Primvus mineral bottle water. Edible Eden use the bottle as a vase to grow a head of salad with homeopathic doses of human urines.
    Installation

    EDIBLE EDEN

    Edible Eden is a piece made for the 100c Wastewater Bottle Art Exhibition, at K11 Design Store, Hong Kong. Artists and designer were asked to transform a Primvus mineral bottle water. Edible Eden use the bottle as a vase to grow a head of salad with homeopathic doses of human urines.

  • 2017

    Cosenza Selva Oscura is a project held within the Landworks Calabria workshop Series, conceived for the reactivation of the historical centre of Cosenza. The project features international architecture and landscape students activating the inhabitants' participative involvement to upgrade a degraded square and construct a small temporary pavilion.
    Workshops

    LANDWORKS CALABRIA/ COSENZA (SELVA OSCURA). Landscape installation for the Activation of the Historical Center of Cosenza, Italy.

    Cosenza Selva Oscura is a project held within the Landworks Calabrina workshop Series, conceived for the reactivation of the historical centre of Cosenza. The project features the participative involvement of international architecture and landscape students of the inhabitants to upgrade a degraded square and the construction of a small temporary pavillion.

  • 2017

    HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich with a simple act. HIC ET NUNC III is the third workshop made in the Messehalle 9, Zurich. The project, developed in collaboration with the BA design interdisciplinary program of the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ (Asylum seekers Organization Zurich), represent a small action to face the first refugee emergency crisis in 2016. Didactically, students were asked to challenge their design skills and competencies to act "here and now" in an emergency condition. To tackle the crisis, the City of Zurich hosted two hundred fifty refugees in a fair hall. Temporary rooms made of OBS wood were built inside the volume of the fair to guarantee privacy, yet, many small actions could have been taken to improve the quality of life and the integration process during the temporary accommodation in the camp. HIC et NUNC III focused on activating the space in front of the cabins to create a semiprivate space. Furthermore, one cabin temporary empty has been transformed into a room with exclusive access for women, guaranteeing privacy otherwise precarious. The workshop has been developed with the support of IKEA CH and DOKA.
    Workshops

    HIC et NUNC III.
    ZHdK, Interdisciplinary Module, Activation of a Asylum Seekers Camp, Zurich.

    HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich. HIC ET NUNC III is the third workshop of a series, in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ Zurich.

  • 2016

    HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich with a simple act. HIC ET NUNC II is the second workshop made in the Messehalle 9, Zurich. The project, developed in collaboration with the BA design interdisciplinary program of the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ (Asylum seekers Organization Zurich), represent a small action to face the first refugee emergency crisis in 2016. Didactically, students were asked to challenge their design skills and competencies to act "here and now" in an emergency condition. To tackle the crisis, the City of Zurich hosted two hundred fifty refugees in a fair hall. Temporary rooms made of OBS wood were built inside the volume of the fair to guarantee privacy, yet, many small actions could have been taken to improve the quality of life and the integration process during the temporary accommodation in the camp.
    Workshops

    HIC ET NUNC II.
    ZHdK, Interdisciplinary Module, Activation of a Asylum Seekers Camp, Zurich.

    HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich. HIC ET NUNC II is the second workshop of a series in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ Zurich.

  • 2016

    HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich with a simple act. The project, developed in collaboration with the BA design interdisciplinary program of the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ (Asylum seekers Organization Zurich), represent a small action to face the first refugee emergency crisis in 2016. Didactically, students were asked to challenge their design skills and competencies to act "here and now" in an emergency condition. To tackle the crisis, the City of Zurich hosted two hundred fifty refugees in a fair hall. Temporary rooms made of OBS wood were built inside the volume of the fair to guarantee privacy, yet, many small actions could have been taken to improve the quality of life and the integration process during the temporary accommodation in the camp. Therefore, students were asked to observe and analyze a challenge (that they could take), develop a proposal, implement it, and realize it. The projects would contribute to the space quality and serve as a case study for future improvements by other students.
    Workshops

    HIC ET NUNC I.
    ZHdK, Interdisciplinary Module, Activation of a Asylum Seekers Camp, Zurich.

    HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich. HIC ET NUNC II is the first workshop of a series in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ Zurich.

  • 2016

    Campo Libero (The Innocent House) is a mobile device for reactivating the lands confiscated from the mafia in the south of Italy. It is designed as an off-grid rural mobile pavilion for the Italian organization Libera, which mission is to promote legality by training volunteers, providing legal support and helping refugees working with no rights in the tomato fields. Campo Libero is designed to overlooks the land, reclaiming the archaic lyricism of the southern countryside. Campo Libero is designed to extend its volume, thanks to an integrated scaffolding structure that provide access to the roof and allows a second story to be built. The project was commissioned for the XV Biennale di Architettura di Venezia by Taking Care, the exhibition at the Italian Pavilion curated by TAM Associati. With this project, the curators' intention of taking Care, designing for the commons goes beyond the biennale exhibition and creates an action that will have a real impact in the disadvantaged territories of the Italian urban peripheries.
    Architecture

    CAMPO LIBERO (The Innocent House). Off-Grid Pavilion for the Reactivation of Lands Confiscated from the Mafia.

    Campo Libero (The Innocent House) is a mobile device for reactivating the lands confiscated from the mafia in the south of Italy. It is designed as an off-grid rural mobile pavilion for the Italian organization Libera, which mission is to promote legality by training volunteers, providing legal support and helping refugees working with no rights in the tomato fields.

  • 2015

    Food has historically been grown in areas of low real-estate interest, far from densely populated settlements usually described as “cities”. Farm-X is a modular vertical farm concept that shifts the historical dichotomy between production and food consumption. It grows up to 5t / day of fresh food in 1000 Sqm using specific hydroponic farming techniques in a fully controlled environment to maximize the productivity of leaf and fruit vegetables. Farm-X is conceived as a device for the production of food and the city itself. Farm-X is a reactivation of abandoned warehouses plots, widely diffused within the US urban city fabrics. It is designed to operate as catalysts for urban reactivation, providing employment and exchange energy and services within any urban development complex. The optimal size of a farm corresponds to a medium-sized urban block (32m x 32m) at four stories in height. This new building typology can be easily integrated into any modern urban fabric and play an active role in local community development with compact construction. Farm-X is designed to optimize its cost-effectiveness and replicability. Thanks to its flexible layout, after a neighbourhood reactivation is completed, the farm can be moved elsewhere, or it can be adapted to another functional program by removing the lightweight hydroponic equipment. Farm-X can also generate energy by processing green waste, creating a close loop between people, food, waste, power within the urban environment. Farm-X is designed to reduce food distribution and production distance and reduce the reach of waste dismantlement by re-integrating it to the farm to produce energy.
    Urban Farming

    FARM-X.
    Vertical Urban Farm. Feasibility Study.

    Farm-X is a modular vertical farm concept that shifts the historical dichotomy between production and food consumption. It grows up to 5t / day of fresh food in 1000 Sqm using specific hydroponic farming techniques in a fully controlled environment to maximize the productivity of leaf and fruit vegetables.

    Farm-X is conceived as a device for the production of food and the city itself. Farm-X is a reactivation of abandoned warehouses plots. It is designed to operate as catalysts for urban reactivation, providing employment and exchange energy and services within any urban development complex.

  • 2014

    By following the instructions in this book, you will become the manufacturer of an idea. This book is an instruction manual for a product that only exists if you build it. Here are the instructions. I have designed this device to produce your food, using some inexpensive IKEA boxes and the directions in this book. This system uses hydroponics, a farming technique that can grow plants in water instead of soil. Hydroponics allows you to save up to 90% of the water used in traditional agriculture systems, requires much less space, and provides you with complete control of the nutrients needed by the plants at each stage of their growth. Another great thing about hydroponics is that you don’t have to worry about watering the plants. The system I have designed combines different hydroponics techniques. These are adapted to make them easy to use at home, which means that you become a farmer, perhaps an urban farmer. However, this book is not a book on urban farming, nor is it a general book about hydroponics. This book is a manual that will show you how to build and run a simple hydroponic system with some inexpensive IKEA boxes. I believe that the ultimate object of design is knowledge. As a designer, I visualize quantities and dimensions, organize briefs, I explain procedures. Sometimes this has more to do with storytelling than with technical drawings. These stories and their illustrations are traditionally given to artisans who turn them into tangible things. But as a designer, I like to design things that anyone can make. Today design can turn the world’s population into the most prominent creative industry ever known. Rather than mindlessly producing new stuff, distributing it, and reinventing new production and distribution chains, we should find new ways of assembling what we already have. For this reason, ELIOOO is using items from IKEA. But the goal of design is also to inspire. ELIOOO is designed so that you can play around with the different setups I suggest in the book, with or without the use of IKEA components. Tinker with the configurations, tweak the system, play with the design, build something. Be inventive. Grow your food. The book is available as a paperback copy and as an ebook for Kindle on Amazon and on iTunes.
    Urban Farming

    ELIOOO.
    How To Go To IKEA And Build An Hydroponic Device To Grow Food In Your Apartment.

    Eliooo is an instruction manual to transform an affordable IKEA product into a hydroponic device to grow food at home and, in doing so, transform IKEA into a distributor of a supply of products that do not exist and you into a manufacturer of an idea.

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Antonio Scarponi / [onceptual)evices 
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© ANTONIO SCARPONI 2021