Future Food District

In the Expo pavilion – actually a real supermarket – designed with COOP Italia Carlo Ratti explores how digital technology can change the way that people interact with food.

The Future Food District (FFD), a 7,000 sqm thematic pavilion designed by Italian design firm Carlo Ratti Associati, together with supermarket chain COOP Italia, explores how data could change the way that we interact with the food that we eat, informing us about its origins and characteristics and promoting more informed consumption habits.

“Every product has a precise story to tell,” says Carlo Ratti “Today, this information reaches the consumer in a fragmented way. But in the near future, we will be able to discover everything there is to know about the apple we are looking at: the tree it grew on, the CO2 it produced, the chemical treatments it received, and its journey to the supermarket shelf.”

The Pavilion at Expo 2015 is a real Supermarket, where people can interact with – and buy – products. Its interior resemble a sloping warehouse, with over 1500 products displayed on large interactive tables. As people browse different products, information are visible on suspended mirrors augmented with digital information. “It is like seamless augmented reality, without Google Glasses or any other cumbersome interface, where people can meet and exchange products and ideas,” said Andrea Galanti, project leader at Carlo Ratti Associati. “In a way, it is like a return to the old marketplace, where producers and consumers of food saw each other and had actual interactions”.

“We were inspired by Mr. Palomar from Italo Calvino’s book of the same name, who enters a fromagerie in Paris and thinks that he’s in a museum,” adds Ratti. “‘Behind every cheese there is a pasture of a different green under a different sky. Mr. Palomar feels as he does in the Louvre, seeing behind every object the presence of the civilization that has given it form.’ We believe that tomorrow’s markets will make us feel a bit like Mr. Palomar. Every product will have a story to tell.” This enhanced knowledge of products can, in turn, create new social links among people. “Think about leveraging the sharing economy and peer-to-peer dynamics to create a free exchange area where everyone can be both a producer and a consumer – almost an AirBNB of home-made products,” explains Giovanni de Niederhausern, COO of Carlo Ratti Associati.

The outside of the pavilion features the world’s largest plotter. The plotter, made of mechanical arms that move along two-axes, draws on the facade using spray paint of different colors, transforming it into a dynamic data visualization fed by visitor-generated contents. Again, information flows help reconfigure space. The Plaza outside the FFD supermarket also showcases new ways of producing food, such as vertical hydroponic systems for growing vegetables, and algae and insect harvesting. “Such advancements in urban farming could really transform underutilized urban spaces into productive areas,” adds de Niederhausern. “If urban farming manages to find its foothold in major urban centers, its effects could be disruptive, in terms of fostering new relationships between citizens and nature.”

Ratti reiterates that focus of the Pavilion is on using design to experiment with different modes of interaction. “This project is an experiment,” concludes Ratti. “Some parts of it are more accomplished than others. However, our goal is to expose new forms of interaction with food to the hundreds of thousands of Expo visitors, who can in turn provide their feedback. As Alan Kay said, ‘The best way to predict the future is to invent it’; such endeavor should happen in a collaborative way.”

EXPO Milano 2015 Future Food District, project by Carlo Ratti, Director – MIT Senseable City Lab and Partner – Carlo Ratti Associati in collaboration with Favero & Milan Ingegneria, Capatti Staubach Landschaftsarchitekte, Systematica, ecoLogicStudio, Cesare Griffa Studio, ENEA and Ceres srl

Future Food District, Expo Milano 2015
Concept design: Senseable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Architectural and interior design: Carlo Ratti Associati
Landscape design: Capatti Staubach Landschaftsarchitekte
Pedestrian flow analysis: Systematica
Urban algae folly design: ecoLogicStudio
Vertical farm design: ENEA, Ceres, Lucchini Idromeccanica
Graphic design: Studio FM Milano
Interaction design: Avanade, dotdotdot
System integration: Accenture
Client: Expo Milano 2015
Partner: COOP Italia
Area: 7,000 sqm
Completion: 2015

Future Food District

In the Expo pavilion – actually a real supermarket – designed with COOP Italia Carlo Ratti explores how digital technology can change the way that people interact with food.

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