I am what I throw away

The project “I am what I throw away” by NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti with AMSA, part of Gruppo A2A, curated by Italo Rota, NABA Scientific Advisor, and Claudio Larcher, NABA Design Area Leader, with the involvement of the NABA Design Area students, is developed on the occasion of the exhibition-event INTERNI Cross Vision during Milan Fuorisalone 2024, from April 15 to 28, and incorporates the use of both recycled and innovative materials to offer an immersive experience that, in its structural essentiality, communicates a narrative of sustainability and transversal knowledge.

Inspired by the modular "Living Structures" of the American designer Ken Isaacs on their 50th anniversary, the installation embodies the concept of matrix in architecture through the use of recycled materials. By blending artisan tradition with industrial experimentation, the installation also represents the ethical aspect of the circularity of separate waste collection processes and the positive outcomes it achieves, making them visible and easy to understand. Common and spread crosswise elements, such as a table and a chair, turned into example projects of the consequences of consumption, aesthetically conveying the amount waste produced by an average household. While in the 3D printing from recycled wire portraits the silent workers populating our metropolises become protagonist.

Starting from Ken Isaacs' "Living Structures", a modular system based on matrices that allows for the construction of living structures at a low cost and with minimal environmental impact, the installation presents a sincere architecture made up of various elements that correspond to the yearly consumption of products by an average household: from the double-throne chair representing plastic containers to the recycled aluminium table that symbolises the number of cans; to the reconstituted wooden panels; to the PVC-covered banner made from the banners created for the graduation ceremony of NABA students; to the posters that visually depict the message of recycling and promote sustainability in an aesthetically pleasing manner, created by the students of the Academy; to the profiles of AMSA workers made with recycled wire using 3D printers.

The aim of the project by NABA with AMSA - Gruppo A2A on the occasion of the Fuorisalone 2024 is to establish a dialogue with citizens on some current topics shared from the two partners such as the circularity of processes, material recovery, as well as the outcomes of selective waste collection. A virtuous collaboration that results in an encounter between the world of education and participatory observation by visitors.

The students from the NABA Design Area who, with the coordination of lecturers Manal Abu Monassar and Ernesto Iadevaia, are: Brigitta Adelizzi, Luca Arrostuto, Eleonora Astolfi, Alara Atilgan, Jordan Bajana, Yessica Bandera, Ludovico Berton, Julia Maria Bezerra De Mello Fabbriani, Monica Borghesi, Nicole Boselli, Federico Giuberti, Martina Ginni, Gjergji Gjoka, Adipa Klomchitcharoen, Carlo Marangoni, Pezhman Mogaddami, Etienne Nzi, Vinayan Ravikumar, Donatella Taraborelli, Gabriele Tosi, Ziyan Xiong.

A special thanks to the architects Alessandro Pedretti and Giacomo Guarneri of Studio Italo Rota for their support in the realisation of the project, as well as the technical partners Bencore® and Gruppo Saviola thanks to the Ecological Panel®.