The installation, presented for the Fuorisalone of the Design Week 2014, included the realization of an urban roof garden on the flat roof of Superstudio Più in Milan. The area covers 750 square meters of terrace. It has been designed by the international artist Michelangelo Pistoletto to shown how a new way of designing and building can bring agriculture in the urban environment. The path in blocks of tuff of the Third Paradise, which denote a distinctive sign of the Biella artist who promotes the encounter between nature and artifice, has given a strong imprint to a place symbol of urban and social regeneration. The realization of the rice field took place on the occasion of the Design Week of the following year and for Expo Milano 2015 supported by the theme “Feeding the planet. Energy for life”. It stressed the importance of rice, the main nourishment for over half of the world’s population and obtained the patronage of “Expo in the city”.

The architecture, used as temporary office, has shown that the life cycle of rice does not end with the noble part; its enormous potentiality lies also in the development of concrete and feasible solutions where rice by-products of agriculture become a RESOURCE and a reservoir of clean energy for the benefit of the community in socio-economic terms and sustainable development. The building was in fact built with wooden frames and infill in rice straw bales, which allow a high insulating power to the construction of passive buildings. The particular cover of Third Paradise, a geodesic dome, has been realized along a workshop for students and professionals using bamboo. Throughout the exhibition period, the installation has hosted some leading personalities that, through multidisciplinary and participatory processes, have engaged in the construction of the new world, promoting the philosophy of social responsibility and environmental sustainability.