I was recently asked to write up a questionnaire for the European Youth Trend Report. I didn’t have a clue what this report means, but I get this opportunity while I was deeply thinking about my future projects. Accordingly, the European agency is a leading reference about youth trends offering every year publications, lectures and workshops about the developments of young creative across Europe. Below it is possible to take a look of the book preview.
I am glad to recently receive the announcement about my selection for the Design Contest ‘Toegepast 18’ organized by Design Platform Limburg, Belgium. Together with other 5 international designers we will work on individual projects that will be exhibited during October 2013 in the contemporary art centre Z33 in Hasselt. Accordingly, I am going to continue my graduation project in the context of Limburg, where I want use soil contamination as a resource for a new productive landscape. This project will examine future scenarios where an interdisciplinary approach could lead designers and scientists to the redefinition of a new farming system based on the use of micro-organism for clean-up soil pollution. In collaboration with the University of Hasselt I will integrate their scientific research on phytoremdiation into a design scenario that takes in consideration the economical, ecological and social aspects of the possible application. To know more about the Toegepast development you can read our blog.
The future of the citycentre of Schio is uncertain: the municipality proposes to block the traffic to vehicles, but some residents fear a reduction of their commercial activities. Until now the area remains a crowded parking space.
Following the initiative of Schio Design Open, Smog Square is a provocative intervention for a more lively historic centre.
I have sketched a new design for the square using the smog collected from building and monuments around the area. This intervention arises the problem of pollution consequences in the city encouraging inhabitants to re-appropriate their public space.
(Italiano)
Il futuro di piazza 4 novembre dipende dall’esito di un recente dibattito pubblico: alla proposta del Comune di chiudere al traffico il centro storico, dove la piazzetta è situata, si oppongono i commercianti che temono un calo delle vendite causato dall’inagibilità ai loro servizi.Seguendo l’iniziativa Schio Design Open, Smog Square è una provocazione che vuole mostrare ai cittadini gli aspetti positivi della chiusura del centro storico, creando, così, un compromesso tra le due posizioni in disaccordo.
Ho ridisegnato la piazza con le polveri sottili dello smog depositatosi su monumenti ed edifici dell’area. In questo modo vengono evidenziate le conseguenze dell’inquinamento urbano e, nello stesso tempo, è rappresentata una riqualificazione della piazza che incoraggia i cittadini a riappropriarsi dello spazio pubblico.
During the last summer, I could see for the first time an edition of ‘Manifesta’ the European Biennial of Contemporary Art. Manifesta 9 took place in the former mine of Waterschei in Genk, Belgium, counting more then 100.000 visits in 4 months. The event attempts to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue between local associations, residents and artists using the significance of the former Belgian coal-mining region as a locus of the societal, economic and the ecological changes of industrial capitalism. Visiting the exhibition it was clear that the point of departure was the geographical context itself. However various projects address global aspects like resource depletion, reuse of goods and the fast industrialization of developing countries. Recently the organization has created an on-line catalog with a wide range of rich and enhanced content.
During the last week in Eindhoven, Bennie Meek and I gave a short lecture about our thesis projects. At the Regional Historic Centre of Eindhoven our bold-titled lecture ‘Urban Green in Post-Industrial Cities’ apparently seemed a bit unfitting the presence of about fifty people, mostly in their majority age. However, the lecture turned into an interesting debate about the future of cities. Some intervention came from member of the municipality, some from local residents and other from students of the Design Academy. In correct English speaking, the pubic sometimes questioned our projects, but everybody seemed to realize some of the social and environmental issues that today (and future) cities have to face. Some examples spawned out from the context: the river Dommel in Eindhoven costs expensive managing control. An other discussion has pinpointed new ideas for the reappropriation of unused buildings. With this lecture we proved the usefulness of social design in contact with reality, and we actually had a great encouragement to pursue with our studies. Thanks to Virgine Mes for giving the possibility of creating such a curated event.
During these first days of Graduation Show I was often thinking that there is not enough communication on the research behind a project. Visitors often pay only superficial attention to the thesis books. The topic of my research spawned out from a personal interest on the dynamics between industrial production and nature. I have given an original format conceiving the book as a tool, a manual with instructions for analyse, remediate and process contaminated areas. Furthermore I have decided to organize the content as a calendar since my thesis process has been carried out exactly during a period of one year. The content is structured in four chapters that refer always to a different season so that the user can really use in connection with the natural system.
Today the Design Academy has opened its door for the annual Graduation Show. At deWitteDame, 139 projects will be on show until the 28 October. Join me at the 5th floor to see my project ‘Farming Pollution Unit’. During this afternoon I got alreay some interesting reactions.
The morning after the opening of Liège Design Biennale I was having a breakfast in a local B&B when, I met two Flemish women that handed me a newspaper called ‘Mapping the Design World’. Then they mentioned Max Borka, a friend of them, which was the author of this magazine. Borka is a Belgian journalist which is establishing a platform aiming of mapping interesting social design cases happening in the world. He made an index of 100 projects in 100 different counties, showing that there is a new generation of multidisciplinary thinkers that use design for create a change, usually from the bottom-up to the top of the problem. Anyway, I was attracted from two examples present in a category called ‘Good Governing’. This examples talks about two totally different cities, Tirana and Bogotà, sharing a bad reputation when it comes to urban governance. As a former painter, Edi Rama turned the whole city of Tirana into his canvas in order to cover the depressing post-Communist buildings that spotted the city. One of the first thing Rama did was forming an army of painters and start cover entire urban areas with colourful patterns. If the artistic result can be questionable, the action undeniably imparted a funky sense of playfulness to the depressed town. Rama remained Mayor for three terms and in 2011 was elected as a member of the Regional Advisory board of the Unitad Nations.
On the other front, Antanas Mockus, the charismatic mayor of Colombia’s capital Bogotà was not less revolutionary. One of his notorious initiatives was to hire 420 mimes to make fun of traffic violators, because Mockus believed Colombians were more afraid of being ridiculed then fined. An other tactic was to get down his pants showing his ass to a neglectful audience during a conference. Mockus was replaced as a mayor by Enrique Penalosa in 2001, but his impact on the city was enormous. Unlike other politicians who are controlled by strategies and fear, these figures have not be driven by a lust of power, but only by their philosophy and creativity.
Mapping the Design World is therefore a tool for all that educational or civil institutions, no-profit organizations and independent designers. Some of the cases show how design move with the help of the Internet, but it also looking more to the specific context or a social group. Social design is becoming open-source, modular, adaptable. It hacks the gaps present in our system and it turns problems into resources.
21th of October, 13.30 h – 14.30 h
Together with Social Designer Bennie Meek I will be doing a lecture on the theme of ‘Urban Green in Post-Industrial Cities’ during the Dutch Design Week 2012 at the Regional Historic Centre of Eindhoven. With this lecture we will present our graduation project achived during our Master in Social Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven. The speech will be in Dutch because the conference addresses also local public.
Entrance: 6 € with drinks
Please send me an e-mail in order to reserve you a free entrance.
Reservation: mail@giacomopiovan.com
Website: http://www.rhc-eindhoven.nl
Address: Raiffeisenstraat 18, Eindhoven.
As a parallel event of Manifesta the exhibition The Machine is also a Must-See. Taking place in an other former coal-mining building called C-Mine, The Machine shows how designers re-appropriate of the control over the process of products. For instance, ‘The Creative Factory’ 01 by Thomas Vailly (FR) is a low tech way to produce fluid and organic plastic shapes; ‘Computer Augmented Craft’ by Christian Fiebig (DE) is spot-welding system for create virtual mesh that can be used to create inspirational and constructive metal structures. An other project which sparks my curiosity was ‘SpiderFarm’, by Thomas Maincent (FR), a method of producing silk with the help of spiders.
The exhibition is curated by Jan Boelen, curator of Z33, with the support of Matylda Krzykowski. Among others designer participating of the exhibition we find: Juan Montero Valdes (ES/GB), Joong Han Lee (KR), Eugenia Morpurgo (IT) and Itay Ohaly (IL). However I am not going to miss either the group next exhibition during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven called C-Fabriek.
Rietveld Landscape is an unconventional architecture studio carried by Ronald and Erik Rietveld and based in Rotterdam (NL). Their practice has inspired me since a visit at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 where the studio curated the Dutch Pavilion. Their captivating project called Vacant NL was a provocative statement about the government-owned buildings in the Netherlands that are currently unoccupied. Rietveld Landscape aims to inspire multidisciplinary teams in order to design a use to more then 4300 vacant spaces that spot Dutch cities.
While I was attending the Master at the Design Academy Eindhoven, they have been invited for an inspiring Lecture + Workshop organized by the Source Program. They were enthusiastic about brainstorming together with students in order to find new uses of vacant spaces.
Hereby an inspiring document about Strategic Interventions, one of studio’s last proposals. “If landscape architecture really wants to make a relevant contribution to the big problems society faces, it is necessary to enter into alliances with researchers, interested parties and specialists. Depending on the assignment, these might be geologic morphologists, historians of architecture or urban planner. […] Strategic interventions are precisely chosen and carefully design urban or landscape interventions that set desired developments in motion. They use the forces of large-scale developments and processes to generate a new context and meaning for qualities that are already present.”
Finally, you could watch a short documentary present in the Dutch Profiles‘s catalog.
On Wednesday 12th September I have been invited to give a presentation of my last project “Farming the Pollution” during the International Conference of Phytotechnologies , which took place at the Hasselt University (BE). This conference brings together scientists, consultants, designers, engineers, builders, regulators, site owners, and site users to explore phytotechnologies to address current and emerging environmental challenges. During this conference I have tried to understand the potential of phytoremediation and I have established good contacts for future collaborations.
Some species collected on-site from La Calamine. The plant species Viola Calaminaria is unique in the world and only occurs in ex-caves in Limburg. The yellow leaves of this flower can often contain more then 1% of Zinc and sometimes 0.1% of Cadmium. These quantities are usually deadly for almost all living beings.
Today I have attended a field trip to La Calamine (BE), a former mine area turned into a natural reserve famous for its special flora. The area is heavily polluted by heavy metals such as Zinc, Lead and Cadmium. The special landscape creates a beautiful contrast with the green vegetation of the surroundings. The workshop organized by the Phytotechnologies Society has enlightened the presence of Metallophytes, plant species able to grow in soil with hight concentrations of heavy metals.
Steelè has opened the doors of his new location last Friday 7 September. The design studio has always maintained a strong bond with its land, and when the possibility of buying a vacant workshop in the countryside of Schio (Vi) came around, the dream of Nadia Ugolini co-founder of a professional experience maturated together in the last years, has finally materialized.
As I could experience in these first weeks of activity in the studio new features are introduced: photographers use the space for working and a drum percussionist practices in a dedicated room. Nearly the building a open field is potentially adaptable for setting a vegetable garden.
By opening the space to other disciplines Steelè aims to encourage independent cultural initiatives being always faithful to his original spirit. Steelè renovates its functions and implement design not only as a production centre of unique objects, but is transformed into a perfect location for cultural hubs, business meetings and parties.
Opening: Friday 7 September from 8 p.m.
Via Villani, Schio (VI), Italy
Inhabitat recently attended the Masters’ Graduation show where they also spotted the installation “Farming the Pollution”. They found the exhibition to be full of surprising, humorous and unique projects.
Read the complete article here!
Many of us are ending their holidays caming back from sea places. Just a few know that a group of Google Earth developers have spended the summer working on a new application for increase knowladge on the clean level of our sea. Recently is possible to download “Oil Compass” an ever-evolving constantly updated map based on interactive installation developed under the same title as an integral part of Protei, which has acted as a central information hub about current positions of oil tankers, past and present spills, location of oil rigs and other marine pollutions such as recent radioactive spill in Fukushima. The Protei installation will be visible on the upcoming Transnatural Festival in Amsterdam.
Last Wednesday 4th of July, the Master Graduation took place at the 3th floor of the Design Academy Eindhoven. After having spent more then 1 year working on my thesis project, I have finally graduated! I am very happy to see the final objects standing in the exhibition.
“Farming the Pollution” is a project that explores the possibilities of using plants to turn soil contamination into a resource. The project presents a design system based on phytoremediation, a methodology that exploits specific plants to absorb heavy metals from soil. This methodology offers an interesting view on the problem of soil pollution, which allows a redefinition of the farming system.
The project makes use of the abandoned areas that are contaminated by an industrial past. In an attempt to create awareness about the invisible presence of contamination, a mobile laboratory offers tools for the analysis of soil in the public space. The retrieved bio-metal, which was contained by the wood, is then stored as a valuable resource for future recycling processes.
With the previous experiments I have investigate a conceptual solution for extract heavy metals from plants. Accordingly with the current resource depletion there is a need to find hypothesis for a reconversion of the current mining technologies into new recycle systems. Here an interesting article from InfraNet Lab about alternatives for copper depletion.
farming pollution 