Active Sustainable Design Now in Shanghai
On September 1 the Italian Pavilion at Expo in Shanghai hosted an international symposium on the cutting edge in sustainable architecture.
In partnership with the prestigious Tongji University, the Italian Consulate General in Shanghai and five well-known Asian architects, Fiandre coordinated and supported an engaging discussion of the theme of sustainable architecture, an issue directly related to the key theme of the Expo: “Better City, Better Life”.
Fiandre had the honour of providing the flooring in the Italian Pavilion, still the most popular space at the Expo four months after it opened, a success beyond the organisers’ wildest dreams that will be hard to repeat in the future! Italian Government General Commissioner for Expo Professor Beniamino Quintieri and Consul General Massimo Roscigno thanked Fiandre for the superior quality of the materials it supplied in their opening speech, citing the company as an example of Italian excellence. The statement is even more important in view of Fiandre’s commitment to research and development in the area of environmentally sustainable materials which are eco-active, helping to make a concrete, tangible improvement to the quality of the air we breathe.
The company’s approach is extraordinarily innovative on the ceramics market, making an important contribution to the Expo’s goals of improving our cities and our lives.
In a world where technology starts to become obsolete before it is 24 hours old, industry and consumers have a duty to work towards achieving a healthier, more natural lifestyle through productive processes and the study of materials that are increasingly human and environmentally friendly.
Speakers at the event included a particularly prominent figure in architecture in Asia, Prof. Maki Fumihiko, who underlined that there are two types of sustainability in architecture today: physical and social. Physical sustainability is achieved by applying architectural treatments to buildings to improve their environmental performance. Social sustainability is less tangible but equally important, and represents the way in which a building maintains its value and use over an extended time period. Truly sustainable architecture offers outstanding performance in both areas. The same opinion was expressed by the moderator of the Questions & Answers session, Prof. Zhen Shiling, who opened the conversation with the architects by noting that “Sustainability means balance and coordination of physical and social aspects, of the human and the natural. Sustainable architecture must meet the requirements of a physical and social function. There is a social ecological environment and a natural ecological environment for sustainable architecture”.
Fiandre is committed to further study of these aspects in order to meet the demands of active architecture, as Chairman and Managing Director Graziano Verdi noted, pointing out that Active is the product of the company’s attempts to achieve truly active, effective sustainability to fight pollution and eliminate the principal bacteria threatening human health as well as significant quantities of NOx thanks to photocatalysis, as certified by the authoritative contribution of TCNA (Tile Council of North America) and Centro Ceramico Bologna, who calculated that 100 square metres of Active material can produce the same benefits as 20 large trees.
