OpenAgri – Future Fields

OpenDot in partnership with NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, organised an online hackathon to rethink the future of urban agriculture using the Speculative Design method, at the request of the Municipality of Milan and the Milan Monza Brianza Lodi Chamber of Commerce.

Thirty-two design students, divided into seven groups, conceived futuristic scenarios and innovative urban agriculture systems for Milan in 2025, which were collected in a fictional report from the future, drafted by a fictional international agency - an urban innovation observatory.

OpenDot asked students to think of new off-grid urban agriculture practices in a situation where the COVID-19 pandemic had not been completely resolved.

Guided by a Speculative Design approach - i.e., the discipline that asks questions about the present to imagine fictional projects - the students tackled the question "what would happen if..." to imagine solutions and scenarios that stimulate wide-ranging thoughts and repercussions, in social, cultural, economic and technological spheres.

The format suggested for Openagri and the Speculative Design method is useful for different players, such as private companies or public administrations. Companies can quickly assess user and stakeholder responses to innovative projects or new technologies.

Public administrations can identify alternative scenarios that would otherwise be difficult to imagine, particularly within medium and long-term projects, or imagine possible outputs of new policies and directions.

Winning projects:

• Piantala! by Leonardo Bosatra, Letizia Bultrini, Elena Cusini, Andreea Popescu and Ilaria Sacchi.
• Special mention for Hedera by Elena Ferrando, Miriana Leuci and Elena Zecchin
  
  

The hackathon was held as part of the OpenAgri project, UIA - Urban Innovative Actions European call for tenders. This took place online with a packed schedule of content and activities using OpenDot's customisation of the Remo event partnering platform. During the remote work week, students were supported by OpenDot tutors and national and international mentors, including Guido Tattoni (Dean NABA), Luca Poncellini (Department Head NABA) and Claudio Larcher (Design Area Leader NABA), and urban agriculture experts such as Felipe Hernandez - Hexagro, Henry Gordon-Smith - Agritecture, Alessandro Arioli and Patrizia Guglielmotto - Aquaponix and Andrea Patrucco (Municipality of Milan).

Mentors' speeches are available on the OpenDot YouTube channel. They include a rich series of insights into the teams’ project challenges.