Rifugio

introduction

a real vision

Opera Campi Rifugio is a little town developed starting from 2060, located in the hills of Parma. The planet has been devastated by catastrophic events resulting from global warming. Although widely predicted, only the reality of the facts led people to a drastic social, economic, lifestyle change. Digital and electronics have become 'classic' technologies: they have stopped because they have reached their maturity. Agriculture and biotechnologies, on the other hand, are the protagonists of this future, where every people has a goal: the self-sufficiency of water, food, energy, even at the cost of compressing the economy and well-being.

And it is precisely the concept of Well-being that changes, the 'drug' that led to levels of consumption unbearable for our planet. Well-being, stress, the value of a person today depend on the ability to consume intelligently, from self-sufficiency, from being able to create social circles without resorting to the use of digital, whose excessive use has been certified as negative on demographics and progress. A future that combines the serenity of the past with a more intelligent use of modern technology.

Scroll down to discover all the chapters of our study.

chapter 3

mobility

Partially autonomous vehicles, intelligent car sharing, and a balance between electric and combustion engines. Our vision of mobility is already achievable today.

Balance between electric and combustion engines

There is no winner between electric and gasoline-powered cars. The combination of both engines represents the future.
In short urban trips, to reduce fine particles, only zero-emission vehicles are allowed to circulate.
An efficient public transportation system connects the suburbs to the city center. Outside the city, the use of combustion engine vehicles is rational for long distances.

Why do we still believe in combustion engine cars? Dismantling the existing infrastructure has a huge cost, even for the environment. Replacing millions of cars and industries, in our view, is counterproductive.

autonomous car sharing

The planet has learned to rely less on the automotive industry, whose waste had become unsustainable.
Opera Campi Rifugio envisions modular and durable means of transport, easily recyclable, with quick replacement of spare parts.
An efficient car-sharing system with autonomous vehicles makes car ownership unnecessary: the car moves autonomously to those who need it in the city, eliminating the main issue with car sharing—finding an available vehicle.

Car sharing becomes useful thanks for autonomous cars

revolution in freight transport

We strongly believe in new technologies, not so much for private use, but for freight transport. Today, we are already talking about autonomous driving and electric trucks. In our vision: freight transport, with its consistently well-defined routes, will become clean and autonomous, reducing accidents, eliminating the need for hard-to-find drivers, and finally making freight transport clean.

Freight transport has the height number of challenges to face

chapter 2

energy

Meeting the energy needs of the future is a complex challenge, with solutions that are not without problems. An intelligent and realistic combination of different energy sources can avoid political supply issues and ensure cleaner energy even in times of peak demand.

In collaboration with Edoardo Astori and Eugen Stamm.

ROOF SHARING

Fifty percent of the energy needs are met by solar power through an innovative public control mechanism:

Photovoltaic panels on house roofs are mandatory.
The installation and maintenance of the panels are managed by the public energy company. We define this mechanism as “roof sharing”: residents must provide their roofs at no cost and in return receive free installation of the solar panels. The energy company will then collect the revenue from the solar energy produced by the roofs of the houses.
In this way, citizens save on energy costs thanks to a self-sufficient state system.

AGRIVOLTAICS

With rising temperatures, crops have begun to suffer. Farmers need to invest in shading and even cooling solutions for their greenhouses. Thanks to translucent solar panels that provide both shade for the crops and generate renewable energy, farmers can preserve their crops and generate new income.

energy storage

Clean energy is always inconsistent, making it essential to store it to avoid loss. At the same time, storing energy is costly, polluting, and risky: excessive dependence on batteries could make lithium the new oil.

Opera Campi Rifugio provides:

Strong incentives for installing domestic storage systems, allowing much of the energy produced during the day to be stored for nighttime use;
Centralized storage systems combining lithium and hydrogen. The use of large stacks of fuel cells and electrolyzers is a solution already proposed by major companies like Helion and its hydrogen electricity generation system.

micro nuclear

New safe technologies such as micro nuclear reactors or fusion plants, although still highly experimental, promise a highly efficient energy solution with less dependence on external supplies. They can provide a reliable alternative to fossil fuels and compensate for the inconsistency of clean energy sources.
In our vision, nuclear power alternates with oil and gas, providing up to half of the energy needs during certain periods of the year.

what about the 10% left?

Will gas and oil disappear? If we want to be realistic, they will never completely vanish. The existing infrastructure is valuable, and dismantling it would have unprecedented environmental costs. Realistically, they will remain in a residual form, ready as energy reserves for about 10% of the energy needs.
However, coal-fired power plants will certainly be nonexistent, as studies show they are the most harmful energy source. Wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power represent clean energies with many drawbacks and are not always usable, making them inadequate for our needs at Rifugio.

chapter 1

Water

Why is water a problem of the future? Global warming has already been shown to increasingly alternate periods of drought with periods of heavy rain. Therefore, the problem is not the long-term scarcity of water, but its efficient collection in the short term.

It is essential to collect every millimeter of water that falls from the sky. The most efficient way is to exploit all the hilly landscapes to channel the water into abundant tanks that transport it to the underground piping system. This system provides 35% of the water supply.

A series of large, elegantly designed condensation sheets are laid out on the hills during the wetter seasons. These sheets are made from advanced hydrophilic materials to maximize dew collection. The system can either collect water or contribute to the irrigation of greenhouses. This system provides at least 5% of the water requirement.

In the plains, it is crucial to collect residual water through an advanced system of elegant wells that gather water from depths between 30 and 100 meters. The wells contribute to providing 35% of the water supply.

The water collection system prioritizes the fields, where there are tanks from which the necessary water for irrigation is drawn. Each element is made of extremely durable and aesthetic metals like corten.

The water requirement of the village is extremely optimized. Technology helps to monitor the state of the fields in real time and automatically irrigates with the minimum necessary amount of water through a drip system.