The Factory of Fabrica

During Milan Design Week, Benetton Group’s communication research centre Fabrica, together with Daikin Italy presented Hot & Cold, an installation of hot and cold experiences, a multi-sensory and conceptual view on temperature.

For this installation they looked at design as a practice that must communicate through form and function, as Sam Baron, design director at Fabrica explains. Hot & Cold had to be an exchange between opposites, representing their distinctive approach as a studio. Fabrica is a place where young talents from across the globe can constantly engage with each other, in projects with universal appeal. Hot & Cold is an installation that started from an object, but reaches out towards different aspects like sound, graphics and interactivity.

During Hot & Cold visitors are guided through a world of interactivity, in which eight different kinds of installations are presented, all of them inspired by temperature and its elements. Tropical plants encased in ice spread over a wide exhibition space express the transition between solid and liquid.Venus and Neptune, the hottest and coldest planet in the Solar System, were the inspiration behind one of the other parts of the exhibition: an acoustic experience in which the climatic sounds of these two planets where sampled together.

But not only sounds where merged together during this project. Fabrica is all about blending worldwide talent, disciplines (from graphic- to product design) and materials together and presenting them as one. A studio that revolves around finding balance in pushing the extremes, resulting in an interesting approach on design and its research. With hopefully more projects to come.