Every day in Orti Dipinti money is being saved: water. Through the new irrigation system donated by Il Bisonte which is part of an ongoing global revolution. Technology serving agriculture! Benefiting the environment (and those who look after it).
At a certain time of day, click. Or some similar noise – short and dull – the sound of activation. The air becomes moist soon thereafter. The leaves of watered plants flutter together like little wings. The potting soil turns black.
The new irrigation system – donated to Orti Dipinti by Il Bisonte, and designed by Jan Bigazzi with Giacomo Salizzoni – is in operation. Fully. And it doesn’t just benefit Giacomo or the Garden. We think it also enriches the current debate on technology in agriculture.
WATER FLOWS THROUGH AUTOMATIC PIPES
Six sections of pipe extend to each of the ten to twenty-one flower bed boxes. You can trace them with your finger like you do the colored lines of a subway map. Only the pipes here are suspended and hidden like a line of cable cars in the forest.
With six respective solenoid valves, two control units and a tap for manual water intake, the time it takes to water Orti Dipinti has been reduced by 75 percent. In the summer months it will take only one hour a day, compared to the four hours needed up til now.
THE SOFTNESS OF LIGHT, EARTH AND LEATHER
It was on the east side of Orti Dipinti, though, that special lights were lined up. Inside displays which looked a bit like World Cup benches, ten light bulbs were screened at the back with pale fabric.
It gave the effect of a Chinese lantern. – Those that take flight! – No, the ones that are firmly anchored to the ground. To illuminate the surroundings, they take advantage of the natural reverberations radiating from the green plants in Orti Dipinti and the natural leather of the displayed Il Bisonte bags, in symbiosis.
