Carlo Ratti and Italo Rota transform a botanical garden in Milan into an 'energy park'
"It presents a miniature model of a self-sufficient energy system and invites visitors to discover the capabilities of this system and improve its efficiency. In this sense, it connects each of us with the design of energy grid systems. You It is possible to understand how objects in our daily lives can potentially become tools for generating energy."
Italian architecture studio Carlo Ratti Associati and architect Italo Rota used more than 500 meters of copper tubing to create energy-generating sculptures for their "Feel the Energy" installation at the Brera Botanical Gardens at Milan Design Week. The installation is designed as a path through a small park, allowing people to explore different types of sustainable and renewable energy.

Copper tubes are bent to create arches and sculptures that support solar and kinetic power generation equipment, turning the botanical garden in central Milan into an "energy park". The electricity produced is stored with the help of a network of small batteries and used to illuminate the garden at night.

The project's designers, Rota and Carlo Ratti Architecture Studio, aimed to show how a self-sufficient energy infrastructure could look like, working in different ways through different sculptures. "Feel the Energy is an energy park that explores energy production and consumption," Ratti told Dezeen. "For the former, we show several forms of solar energy -- organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) -- and several forms of kinetic energy; you can move a carousel or turn a handle to generate light."

The installation also showcases more abstract ways of creating energy. "From a more conceptual point of view, you can experience music and sound vibrations (the vibrations that occur when you play a vibraphone) as other unexpected ways to 'feel the energy,'" he added.

The installation includes a total of six sculptures, the Energy Carousel, Garden Orchestra, Leading Sign, Dynamic Vibration, Solar Shutters, and Solar Garden. In addition to powering the lights at night, some units are used to cool the botanical gardens by using evaporative cooling, which uses sensor-activated water vaporizers to mist the path as people walk through them.

Ratti, founding partner of Carlo Ratti Associati and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, said the design was intended as a test case. "The installation is designed to test cutting-edge energy technologies (especially those related to photovoltaics) in an urban environment," he said. "Orto Botanico can be thought of as a small 'living laboratory'," he added. "It presents a miniature model of a self-sufficient energy system, inviting visitors to discover the capabilities of this system and improve its efficiency. In this sense, it connects each of us with the design of energy grid systems."

He also hopes the installation will inspire people to think about how we can harvest the energy we create in our daily lives. "There's also an education component," Ratti said. "Along the exhibition path, you can find some technical devices dedicated to harvesting energy, such as LSC panels. But more importantly, you can learn how objects in our daily lives can potentially become tools for generating energy." The installation It was created for Plenitude, an arm of power company Eni, as a "forward-looking" project for the company's decarbonization strategy.
Photo by Marco Beck Peccoz

Article Source：Dezeen

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