Twenty-one universities from fifteen countries around the world will challenge each other in Dubai at the Solar Decathlon Middle East, the biannual international competition dedicated to environmentally sustainable architecture.
The goal of the competition is that of designing and building the best prototype, in 1:1 scale, of the home of the future: “smart” in design and entirely powered by solar energy.
Representing Italy is the University la Sapienza of Rome with the project ReStart4Smart, proposed by the “Team Sapienza”, comprised of students coming from various departments (architecture, design, engineering, communication), directed by Professor Marco Casini.
Among the participants is Forme d’Acqua, Venetian company specialised in the production of design fountains, selected by the Roman university to give its personal contribution to this international project.
The product present in Dubai is Flora, a fountain in precious white marble from the collection Le Sirene, designed by Simona M. Favrin who spoke of her work: “Every project is born from a challenge and from a passion. In this case, the challenge was that of creating an “emotional” object, able to create an empathic energy with whoever shares its space, entering and becoming part of his or her world, generating emotions. An object that, when it’s not there, feels missed. The passion is for the materials, glass, steel, marble and, last but not least, water, which has the power to soothe and seduce, reawakening ancestral feelings.”
Flora is sustainable and emotional and it fully blends with the needs of the home of the future. Indeed, it is possible to manage it through a smartphone and tablet app. The fountain, inserted within the space, interacts with whoever approaches it through luminous pulsations and variations of the water flow. A dedicated intuitive web interface allows one to directly control and programme all of its functions, among them, the possibility of receiving messages that give information about its status.
