Milano Design Week: Neuronature, the project that combines Technology and Nature. A multisensory journey in a primeval forest

Milano Design Week: Neuronature, the project that combines Technology and Nature. A multisensory journey in a primeval forest.

In the frame of the Listone Giordano Arena, the innovative project Neuronature, a unique initiative, a sensorial journey into the nature and history of the planet.

Until the end of the Milan Design Week, the Listone Giordano space dedicated to cultural initiatives is transformed into an indoor forest, offering visitors a regenerating experience in direct contact with the plant kingdom.

The hypothesis that guided the design was that a stay of approximately 15 minutes within the route can bring significant measurable benefits on a physiological, cognitive and emotional level. Inside the Arena it therefore comes to life an embryo – evocative and symbolic – of PRIMORDIAL FOREST.

Innovation: the neuronal helmet and the psychology of living.

The "barefoot" route is made even more immersive by the use of technological "neuronal helmets” made available by department of “Environmental Psychology” of the University of Padua, a prestigious collaboration thanks to which it will be possible to virtual return of the path produced during the regenerating experience which stimulates sight, hearing, touch and smell.

" culture is the basis of this project. This project is a primordial forest, the one we would have found on Earth 450 million years ago. When algae came to land and became plants, the first process occurred: life. Plants have demonstrated that being the origin of life, they can give us a real opportunity for continuation: the planet will continue to exist, it is the human species that will have some difficulties if we do not implement a change. Therefore it is important to return to the origins of what the human species has been able to have from this nature - says Nicola Cherubini of Listone Giordano- This is an awareness-raising exercise, very courageous because it is linked to the neuroscience that we experience by asking ourselves what happens when man and nature enter into a relationship. Today there are technologies that allow us to experiment with it. With the University of Padua we explore well-being in built environments, that is, what the future of the man-made environment can be. Therefore a promise of well-being that we want to give and that we give as a sensitive message to the Design Week".

"SIt is an environment designed to offer regenerative breaks. What does regenerative breaks mean? It means reducing stress, re-establishing attention and cognitive faculties; so, if you are working and simply get tired, a 5 minute break in this environment helps you recover - Explains Giuliana Salmaso, of the Department of Environmental Psychology of the University of Padua -

IThe project is presented here in virtual reality. What we would then like to do is realize it completely, build this environment. We know that the shape, the care of the space, the type of tactics, the materials used, the sounds, the scents, a whole series of parameters, if well composed, ensure that the environment regenerates.

The plants and the primordial forest are an ideal environment because they fit into a great theme which is how to ensure that the indoor space is regenerating. Because we know from scientific research that human beings feel good when they are immersed in nature, but we also know from statistics that when we reach 90 years of age, we spent 81 of them indoors. So how do you make sure that the indoor environment is as regenerative as a walk in nature? From here comes this whole line of science, research and environmental psychology combined with architecture to ensure that the design is effective, so that human beings feel better. So here are indoor plants, natural materials, natural materials treated in such a way as to offer a certain type of sensation to the touch, the scents, the sounds, that is, the composition of the environment on a multi-sensory level".

The first major stages in the evolution of land plants were the development of bryophytes and pteridophytes. Bryophytes are the simplest land plants include mosses and liverworts, tiny plants that populate the humid areas of the undergrowth or those near the springs. The mosses they form soft cushions on the trunks of some trees or on rocks, in shaded areas or along the course of rivers. Land pteridophytes are small plants, which have developed a series of adaptations to successfully occupy environments far from water. They are more complex than Bryophytes because they have a system of conducting vessels; they are however considered primitive because their embryo does not form a seed but spores. They include ferns, lycopods and horsetails.

Sergio Costanzi, landscape architect, thus illustrates the recreated natural environment: “We really wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the primordial forest by using Antarctic tree fern plants to be precise, these primordial plants which together with mosses and lichens are one of the first types of plants to develop on Earth, thanks also to the use of a black sand to recreate that effect of volcanic ash given by the explosion and formation of the planet.

All this in order to re-propose, understand and map the benefits that green brings when interacting with the human brain. .

Here we have recreated a sort of island that we wanted to define as a "vegetation cell", where people can go and experience contact with plant species."

Wellbeing Design

The project was born from the initial statement - necessary and not obvious - of that "promise of well-being" dear to Arena's partners, which can also be achieved thanks to the use of natural materials – such as wood, stone, terracotta and immaterial ones such as light and sound – which plays a fundamental role in the entire experience – to open dialogue with the fascinating world of plants. The common desire to help people "feel better" lays the foundations for this April of design, a radical choice that brings into reality those theories and studies inherent to Wilson's biophilia and environmental regenerativeness, from which it is possible to draw indications on which characteristics of the built environment are able to facilitate recovery from stress and mental fatigue

Spazio Arena: the crossroads between Art, Design and Culture

Located in the central area via Santa Cecilia 6 a Milano and designed by the architect Michele De Lucchi, is a place not only for the presentation of the company's products, but for discussion, comparison and learning on the great themes of nature, wood and human sensitivity. The building, which in the 30s housed the legendary “La Penna D'oca” restaurant (cradle of futurist cuisine) designed by the great Giò Ponti, preserves traces of the view over the Naviglio which once ran along Via San Damiano. The windows opened directly onto the water in one Milano completely different. In ancient times, Sand it was a sostra, a place designated for the storage of coal, in an eighteenth-century building located on what was once the circle of canals. A delicate recovery operation has brought to light the power of the spaces and its architectural qualities made up of columns, large arches, vaulted ceilings, stone pillars that define a shell of Renaissance proportions.

Here an open amphitheater has been created where presentations, conferences and product displays can be organised. The absolute protagonist is the design of materials in all its forms with partners of absolute prestige. From the masters of mouth-blown borosilicate glass processing by Blueside Emotion Design, to the scenographic and architectural lighting of Panzeri and Simes, from the strength of the stone of Vaselli's kitchens to the ductile versatility of Matteo Brioni's raw earth to arrive in Paghera with its installations and, of course, Listone Giordano, an icon of high-end wooden flooring famous throughout the world. Partners who, each with their own characteristics, make this space ideal for describing the changes and trends in living both from an architectural and cultural point of view.

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