Bug Stop

In this project the group of designers observed the urban and

rural synergy and how to promote a balance between them. In

a project at the Politecnico di Milano called “Spatial & Interior

- rural and urban synergy” under the direction of the professors

team including Giovanna Piccinno, Andrea Granitzio, Alice

Zingales, Cristina Morbi, Marco Barsottin the individual designers

already dealt with the topic in different projects. The project, has

the target of producing a “spatial device” that provokes, effects or

initiates precisely this theme of promoting a balance of synergy

between urban and rural space. This is mainly about developing a

“free radical” a “starter”. In the progress it meant to deal with the

extinction of species in the city, mainly insects. The reasons for this

are, broadly speaking, habitat loss, species-unfriendly soundscapes,

air pollution and insect repellent chemicals. As a result, flora and

fauna in urban areas are declining and forming an ever-smaller

counterbalance on the quality-of-life side in compensation for

urbanization and industrialisation. The first question was how to

counteract this without building on open spaces. First of all, it

was necessary to find a place to start the operation, the “Centrale”

station for the main railway station in Milano seemed perfect. It

represents the junction of urban and rural regions. After a few

attempts and approaches, the idea of changing objects of the

urban landscape was born. Public property and private yet public

“service devices” became the target, to be replaced by alternatives

according to the project. The project focused on developing a system

through which, simply put, it was made possible to grow bus stops

out of trees. Using tubes made of biopolymer and a modification

of the “Espalier technique”, the designers developed an idea of a

technique how trees can theoretically “grow” a bus stop in the sense

of building it. After the tubes have served their purpose of shaping

the tree or plant, they decompose through weathering and go into

the soil as fertilizer. The idea behind this is to develop a starter, to

integrate nature usefully into the cityscape. Through the process, it

is possible to create something that can be removed again without

problems, rubble and an additional co2 emission. It is a reasonable

way to change the face of the city that benefits the environment.