"As architect and designer always fascinated by biology and as a free thinker, I spent long time   thinking about how can we design freedom,…and I’ve started searching in NATURE and in OLD CULTURES for the answer.

 

10 years ago I come to Australia to learn more about the semi-nomadic culture of Native people, their history and  all the ecosystem around them, which is made by their communities and traditions but also by the biodiversity, the indigenous plants, the red soil of their territory.

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I always knew I could learn a lot from them. Millennial knowledge that has always been silenced, devalued or ignored. They who had the largest house in the world with no walls or foundations. They who were connected and free.

 

I started researching about the first human, ecological and temporary settlements and all the apparently simple but very sophisticated ecosystem related to them, which is also what made Indigenous Australians so resilient.

 

I wished to know how to bring some of their knowledge, wisdom and freedom into my life and how to share with my  world.

I started translating all my learnings through every possible medium: experimental architecture, art installations, public talks and publications, also growing food, which is one of the biggest act of creation and surviving, as they knew. Specially land art installation gave me the freedom to communicate about nature through nature, and connecting with local people and the land.

 

So I started studying permaculture and biomimetic to learn more about biology, ecology and ecosystem services,  and to translate these teachings into innovation, art and sustainable systems.

 

I've mainly been interested about the intelligence of natural systems such as plants and insects, their ability to collaborate and create solid and resilient structures, as also Indigenous people did.

 

Hence freeDOME was born: a holistic and multidisciplinary project but above all a project of freedom of movement, expression and connection, with people and the land.

 

It is a project that brings together tradition and innovation, taking a step back to move forward.

Born in Italy, it  has been developed between Italy

and Australia during the last 5 YEARS.

 

Italy  because it is a project about mobility and movement and in Italy the automotive design, and the ‘Made in Italy’ in general has represented the national identity for the last century, as synonymous of quality of design, technology and innovation. Especially now, in this historical  moment,  I think  it is important to relaunch this identity internationally, thinking and speaking about new project. -Made in Italy-

 

Australia, because the semi-nomadic Aboriginal culture, their relationship with the land and the extended wild territory, perfectly favour the hypothesis of new forms of “semi-nomadic and resilient communities”. Which is what freeDOME project is about. 

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Italia and Australia also because I found there are some similarities  between the 2 cultures, the native Australians and Italians:  the big families, the value of the elders and their  storytelling around the fire, the many different languages, traditions, and  the relationship with the land. In some way here, specially when i connect with their territories and communities, I feel free and at home. That's why freeDOME belongs to Australia, too." Serena.

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