Project Details
This film was created in collaboration with Carlo Ratti Associates to showcase CRA’s architectural master plan for Italy’s bid to host the World Expo in 2030. The master plan aims to revitalise the Tor Vergata area in Rome through sustainable long-term development, including the most extensive urban, publicly accessible solar farm in the world, the “Eco-system 0.0”. This pavilion will provide cooling through evaporation, and the repurposing of abandoned structures.
Client
Rome Expo Commitee
Location
Rome
Sector
Architecture & Built Environment
Collaborators
Carlo Ratti Associati
The Brief
To create a narrative-driven film showcasing CRA’s design for Rome Expo 2030.
Our Response
The main concept behind the film is the idea of the mosaic. This idea sparked in our early conversations with CRA and the Expo committee.
On one level, Expo is often described as a mosaic of nations and cultures that meet up in one place to exchange ideas and solutions.
On another level, the CRA masterplan looks like a mosaic of tiles that reconnect and enhance the existing urban fabric of Tor Vergata and of course Rome itself is a mosaic of cultures and history, which reflects the ethos of the world expo.
Our film adopts the mosaic idea in its visual language both in the 2D introduction and in the following 3D animation, using grids and flipping tiles as the main elements to drive the narrative and the transformations.
The Mosaic was a creative solution which also helped us overcome the difficulty posed by the infeasibility of a location shoot in the time available, (Squint/Opera had three weeks to deliver to the client) allowing us to integrate all the different available sources of imagery into a coherent and consistent style which effectively conveyed CRA’s masterful and ambitious bid for Rome Expo 2030.
Squint’s film had three main objectives: to communicate CRA’s architectural master plan, to explain why Rome is suitable as a city for the world expo and to present the theme of the expo, “People and Territories, Together: Urban Regeneration, Inclusion and Innovation.”
For example, a section of the film responded to the judges’ requirement that every nation is equally represented, focusing on the freedom of participating countries to design their pavilions in ‘the Boulevard’, a space designed by CRA to give every country an equally placed voice at world expo.
The primary aim of the film was to inspire participating countries to select Rome’s bid above all others by revealing how their needs will be accommodated by CRA’s design.
Another section of the film talks about the legacy of the expo, including its zero-waste strategy and lasting pavilions that become part of the Tor Vergata University.
It resonates with the countries that are judging as they especially care about sustainability, but it resonates even more with the Roman people as it explains how the expo can positively impact their livers by regenerating a valuable part of their city.
‘We are thrilled to continue our long-time collaboration with Squint/Opera, which helped our team convey such a multifaceted design vision in the most compelling way possible.’ – Carlo Ratti Founding Partner / Chairman, CARLO RATTI ASSOCIATI.
