Livegreenblog at Expo 2015 – Future Food District

On our trip to Expo Milan 2015, based on the theme “Feeding the planet. Energy for life” we visited the Future Food District, a theme pavilion designed by Italian firm Carlo Ratti Associati, with the COOP Italia supermarket chain.



Despite food being the key theme of Expo Milan 2015, it is only appropriately handled in pavilions in a few cases - some spectacular, others less so.





And when it comes to spectacular, the crowning glory is the Future Food District, designed by Carlo Ratti Associati with the COOP Italia supermarket chain and based on SENSEable City Lab, the concept design by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A simple architectural skin with two facades along the lengths decorated live by patterns using two vertical plotters – another Carlo Ratti Associati invention as well as Yumi, the roboter – treated us to the digital future at the service of the environment.



Carlo Ratti Associati has designed a supermarket where consumers can use cutting-edge technology to get all the information about the product they have selected, just with a touch of the hand - finding out where the ingredients are sourced, the nutritional information and even the carbon footprint caused by the making of that food item. 



This keeps customers informed and educates them to become more environmentally aware, one of the most important foundations for our future, where choosing low impact food will become the keystone in order to guarantee a future for our children. And the natural curiosity of children and their unprompted questions is what opens up the parents' eyes after they find out all about the carbon footprint of the various food items: seeing is believing - so make sure you take the opportunity to experience this new way of shopping so you can become a more informed and aware shopper in the future.





The Future Food District is an innovative example of storytelling applied to our routine lives, created by bringing together architectural design and cutting-edge technology, where the product tells its story for a more truly ecological future where it will no longer be possible to hide behind a “oh, but I didn't know...”.

Concept: Senseable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Architectural and interior design: Carlo Ratti Associati
Landscape design: Capatti Staubach Landschaftsarchitekten
Pedestrian flow analysis: Systematica
Algae design: ecoLogicStudio
Vertical farm design: ENEA, Ceres, Lucchini Idromeccanica
Graphic design: Studio FM Milano
Interactive installation: Avanade, dotdotdot
System integration: Accenture
Client: Expo Milan 2015
Partner: COOP Italia
Area: 7.000 m2
Completion: 2015
Photography: © Gianluca Giordano