NITRO @ maker faire rome 2014

Il gruppo nITro sarà presente alla Maker Fair Roma il 4 Ottobre alle ore 13:00, con lo speech: Let’s rock! Proactive revolution in architecture (www.makerfairerome.eu/project/lets-rock-proactive-revolution-in-architecture)

Qui il sito di riferimento www.makerfairerome.eu e di seguito l’abstract:

We will tell the story and the experience of nITro – New Information Technology Research Office, a group of young architects founded by prof. Antonino Saggio (Architecture – La Sapienza University in Rome) and its philosophy which is based on few key principles:

Nowadays the focus of design is shifting from projects to processes. In this sense, a proactive program takes care of new situations, anticipates and takes control of them, rather than react passively. At the same time is able to handle the simultaneity of events in addition to their place in the sequence, and the possible triggering of unpredictable phenomena but related to the program itself. According to the proactive logic, the task of the contemporary architect is to incorporate the pressures that come from the bottom and then converge them towards new synergies.

Architect is an hacker, cracking the urban code to encourage the metamorphosis of the city. Aiming to raise social awareness through bottom-up actions, nITro group promotes an architectural research inspired by a systemic thinking and proactive, resulted in urban installations, interactive prototypes and product design where the Information technology plays a key role.

These design challenges mark a shift in the approach to contemporary architecture: it is not a matter of a “solution”, but starting from the identification of a “crisis”.

nITro group promotes an architectural research starting from a crisis and inspired by a proactive and systemic thinking, resulted in urban projects (DigitUS), interactive urban installations (TreeIT) where the Information Technology plays a key role.

The main project we present is called “TreeIT”, it consists of a harmonious boardwalk that winds dynamically in different directions, emphasizing the potential of the space and lends itself to different ways of use. The walkway, made of OSB wooden panels, exhorts the visitor to cross the interactive forest consisting of more than one hundred synthetic trees, which evoke the operation of the project and at the same time reveal that only the active presence of the community may impose a smart solution. The position of the body is detected by three ultrasonic proximity sensor connected via Arduino to the LED lighting system places on top of the artificial trees. The square thus becomes a sensible space that lends itself to many fruitions and that responds to the solicitations of bodies that pass through it.

TreeIT is a metaphor for the work of architect Dario Pompei, drawn up as dissertations with Professor Antonino Saggio at the La Sapienza University of Rome. The project shows how you can tackle the crisis of pollution poisons that has affected the lake Vico (VT). The operation is systemic and provides at the same time an active reforestation, decontamination and reclamation and the creation of paths hanging on wooden walkways. These pathways enhance the zone of the slopes at lake by creating micro architectures placed in the context and allow compatible development with the naturalistic vocations of the zone.

TreeIt has been exhibited in two different events: the first time for the “Cubo Festival” in Ronciglione (VT), and then for the “Medioera Festival” in Viterbo; on this second occasion nITro has launched a new project called “#DigitUS: From the old city to the interactive city”. DigitUS combines micro-urban design solutions to civic crowdsurcing, injecting plant systems and new greenery within the historical center, which thanks to the use of digital devices will be able to emit and receive environmental information. This creates a new layer and at the same time the digital environment of the city. The project includes four scales of application (small, medium, large, extra large) and involves integrated plant and digital systems, which depending on the scale ranging from the planter to a small garden. The citizens who wish to participate will be able to proceed with the adoption, by a simple online registration, of one or more elements that will give new life to the urban landscape of Viterbo. The activity of developing and making prototypes will include the involvement of the locals schools, the University of Tuscia and a pool of companies working on these issues.

nITro has also developed more urban prototypes or plug-in design elements during the “Sicily Lab”, organized every summer in Gioiosa Marea (ME). We will show some examples and the philosophy behind this projects.