Need

There is a space in the center of Milan hosting since 2019 talks and cultural exchanges on the relationship among humans, nature and design, in a contemporary agora expressing its brilliance through the naturalness of wood and the other materials making it.The Arena Listone Giordano space, for the 2023 Design Week, wanted to offer a transformative experience to its guests, in order to stimulate both an emotional and a rational engagement on the bond connecting human wellbeing, nature and design. Nature has the power of nurturing the forms of life within it, giving them back their vital force, lowering the stress levels and empowering the five sensory organs: a power that should be represented and related to people.

Research

We started our research on the fertile grounds of art, science and landscaping. In the last few years, these disciplines -interacting with human biology studies- have been investigating the relationship among nature, human beings and a design, in order to help their harmonic coexistence. We have faced choices about green areas and the use of light -designed outside the aesthetic fence and in relation with many factors- that should have the wellbeing of people as their final goal.

Experimentation

Together with Paghera -a brand of landscaping architects with a 150 years story, already a partner of the Arena- we dealt with the genesis of the planet, discovering the most ancient plants and their features and benefits. We imagined an indoor space able to regenerate the people walking through it, helping the development of a healing relationship with the plants. The Arena partners gave their contribution studying the most suitable materials, light and furniture to support the design of a natural oasis. The term Biophilia –meaning “love for life”-, that ancestral tie human beings search in other forms of life, guided the creative process up to the construction of a natural environment that communicates, through its codes, with the human nervous system. We recovered a trace of that regenerative physiologic, emotional and cognitive function, thanks to the scientific collaboration of Strobilo and the University of Padova.

Neuro Nature

The Listone Giordano Arena becomes a small primordial forest hosting a multisensory experience of technological and scientific value.Guests are invited to walk through the forest barefoot, for a better contact with nature and matter; fifteen minutes spent in a close relationship with an ecosystem of wood and other natural materials, sustaining and surrounding the forest. Primordial plants, leaves, perfumes and colors, are experienced while wearing a neuronal helmet – courtesy of the University of Padova - tracing the beneficial reflection of a highly scientific experience. This will help to stimulate a renewed environmental conscience emphasizing the unbreakable bond between people and the planet, therefore merging into a unique idea of wellbeing. Architecture can represent this wellbeing through design.