Meno Italia, or less is a must

M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010

Meno Italia, or less is a must
Participation to AILATI – Reflecions from the Future. Italia 2050 exhibition. Italian Pavilion, 12th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2010
Curators: Luca Molinari, Simona Galateo, Wired Magazine

In Italy there is a place where the development of the territory shows all its contradictions.
It is where enormous portions of land are urbanized every day (103,000 square meters, six Duomo squares, in Lombardy alone). It is where we still allow ourselves to move individually for kilometers, where our home wastes energy from all sides, where comfort is a habit and a status symbol.
The diffused periphery is where it becomes clear that growth and sustainability are antithetical terms.

In the suburbs, it is now already clear that in 2050 we will have to live with less: less space, less energy, less comfort, less buildings, less travel, less work, less wealth.
We will have to change our lifestyles and imagine a new formula for the Italian way of life.
Between our well-being and the poverty of others there is a reciprocity that must be considered. We are starting to think that the true quality of life is also to live in a slightly more equal way.
Our project is an alternative to the widespread periphery.

M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010
M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010

It is a small, compact suburb, tangent to the density of urban centers. It is a multi-storey suburb, made of slabs and containers. Like a building, it is entirely pedestrianized and needs no roads.
All the floors are equivalent and the different functions, individual and collective, find their place indifferently in the built space.
At the same time, floors are potentially all different: the shape of each floor is almost independent of the others (under the minimum rules of a Master(multi)plan), making the final shape of the whole open and unpredictable.
The result is a place where many distinctions, such as indoor and outdoor, public and private, high and low, you and I, are reduced.
A place of physical proximity, for what will be our next primary need: to meet.

M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010
M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010
M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010
M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010
M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010
M A R C  @ biennale Venice 2010

Design: MARC, based on a collaboration with Nico Vascellari
Designers: Subhash Mukerjee, Michele Bonino, Nico Vascellari, Jelena Pejkovic, Francesco Strocchio, Lucia Baima, Cristina Cordeschi, Mi-Jung Kim, Cynthia Luglio, Alberto Lessan
Prototypes and architectural models: Ateliermisto, Oriziomodelli, with Roman Oleh, Paolo Mennea, Ciro Zanetti, Matteo Maria dell’Olio, Paola Mucciarelli, Nanako Ishizuka, Maya Ben Ammar
Acknowledgements: Alessandro Armando, Tomà Berlanda, Francesca Comisso, Rebecca De Marchi, Daniele Forte, Sara Fortunati, Raffaella Lecchi, Serena Pastorino, Paolo Verri, Paola Zini
Client: La Biennale di Venezia
Photos: Marco Beck Peccoz

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