The video contemplates the true meaning of luxury, suggesting that while traditionally associated with items like yachts and jewels, luxury today is increasingly defined by factors such as exclusivity and sustainability. The speaker, an architect, emphasizes the importance of creating luxury products, including buildings and consumer goods, in ways that contribute positively to the environment. Through sustainable architecture, luxury can merge with environmental responsibility, offering solutions that are both exclusive and eco-friendly.

The speaker shares insights from their architectural experience, particularly the challenge of balancing luxury with sustainable design. They discuss key projects like the Navi Mumbai International Airport and new metro stations in Riyadh, highlighting how sustainable building strategies are being integrated to ensure resilience, reduce carbon footprint, and incorporate natural ventilation and materials that minimize embodied carbon. This fusion of luxury and sustainability offers lasting value to the community and the environment.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. essence [ˈɛsəns] - (noun) - The intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something that determines its character. - Synonyms: (spirit, nature, core)

The true essence of a luxury good is given by the exclusivity, the scarcity of the availability of this good.

2. resilience [rɪˈzɪl.jəns] - (noun) - The ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. - Synonyms: (toughness, flexibility, durability)

The first one, the most important, is the resilience.

3. exclusivity [ˌɛkskləˈsɪvɪti] - (noun) - The state of being limited to a select group of people; selectiveness. - Synonyms: (selectiveness, rarity, uniqueness)

The true essence of a luxury good is given by the exclusivity, the scarcity of the availability of this good.

4. embodied carbon [ɛmˈbɑːdid ˈkɑːrbən] - (noun phrase) - The total carbon footprint of a building's materials as they exist in products and processes before the building's use. - Synonyms: (material carbon footprint, construction emissions)

But what about the embodied carbon? What about the carbon that is necessary in the production, that is released in the production of the materials for the construction and the construction itself?

5. vernacular [vərˈnæk.jə.lər] - (adjective / noun) - Relating to the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region, or the everyday language. - Synonyms: (language, dialect, lingo)

We combined it with mediterranean vernacular architecture.

6. bioclimatic [ˌbaɪ.oʊ.klaɪˈmæt.ɪk] - (adjective) - Concerning the application of the knowledge of climate to design buildings to achieve occupant comfort while reducing reliance on mechanical heating and cooling. - Synonyms: (eco-friendly, sustainable, environmental)

So now you have to rely on those bioclimatic passive measures of protection from the environment.

7. reinforcement [ˌriɪnˈfɔrsmənt] - (noun) - The action or process of strengthening a structure by adding material or structure to support it. - Synonyms: (strengthening, fortifying, supporting)

And we can shape the blocks in such a way that they would assemble together without the needs of any structural steel reinforcement.

8. infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəˌstrəkʧər] - (noun) - The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. - Synonyms: (facilities, framework, foundation)

Riyadh is looking ahead and is planning to create a new infrastructure for metro transportation.

9. proportion [prəˈpɔrʃən] - (noun) - A part, share, or number considered in comparative relation to a whole. - Synonyms: (ratio, balance, symmetry)

I was surprised by the unusual proportion of the allay and the transito.

10. therma [ˈθɜr.mə] - (noun) - Ancient Roman public bathing place. - Synonyms: (baths, spa, bathhouse)

We're taking inspiration from the architecture of the therma.

The luxury of sustainable achievement - Filippo Innocenti - TEDxForteDeiMarmi

If I say luxury, what comes to your mind? I'm not talking about time, I'm talking about true luxury. So what is it? Is it a jewel? Is it designer bag? Shoes? Maybe a fancy yacht like this one? Well, fair enough. These are all symbols that we would normally associate with the idea of luxury. The true essence of a luxury good is given by the exclusivity, the scarcity of the availability of this good. But there are a number of aspects that these days are concurrent to define the value of a luxury product. Among these, sustainability, the fact that building this product, or maybe just buying this product, we can contribute to the environmental discourse.

I'm an architect. I design and I build with purpose. And I am particularly interested in everything that can define an exclusive aspect and value. I've been working in a number of projects in the last 25 years as a director of Zahadid architects, looking at how sustainable design can deliver exclusive solutions. And in this experience of the last years, I came across a number of many different opportunities to look at sustainable solutions. But one of these projects has been striking to me because it forced me to rethink the definition of what I consider to be exclusive. This is the Navi Mumbai International Airport. It is a complex that is aiming at providing transportation service for about 90 million passenger per year. And it's an airport that was commissioned and operated by a family of entrepreneurs so differently from any other public project I've been working so far.

For this project in particular, we were dealing with the family, with the commissioner, and we would deal with the managing director and his wife, and we would spend the time together with them in their villa in the Hyderabad or in Mumbai. And we would discuss colors, we would discuss transparency, we would discuss any aspect that is architectural. Basically, they were expecting us to design this airport as something luxurious, as it was a jewel, or as it was the extension to their own villa. But it wasn't for them. We were meant to design this building. This was meant to be the legacy of the family, to the country, to the people. It was meant to be something that the community could sustainably maintain in the future.

Now, what is sustainability in architecture? Is it something we can really achieve? Now, as architects, we would normally measure the sustainability of a project along three different vectors. The first one, the most important, is the resilience. It is about how a building can survive the transformation in time of its needs and still being usable. Now think about when Michelangelo was called to rethink the use of what was left of the term medidiocliziano in Rome. And it came with this concept of using a part of the tepidarium to create what is now Santa Maria degli Angeli. This is my favorite church in Rome.

When I visited the church the first time, I didn't know that it was built on the remaining of the thermal. And I was surprised by the unusual proportion of the allay and the transito. I was astonished at how generous the plan of the church it was, how many openings and how much light was coming through the roof. What a beautiful reinterpretation of the concept of the basilica. But is this a real example of resilience? While you might say maybe not, maybe the roman architect actually didn't think of reusing its own building into something else. And this is in fact the main point. To be truly resilient and sustainable, any building should be capable of planning ahead a possible different use in the future. And this is not easy at all.

Now there's another way we can measure the sustainability of the building, which is the amount of carbon that is necessary to produce the energy to operate it. This is the arabian desert. This is the worst place ever. If you intend to build something sustainable, you want to stay away from this latitude. Now Riyadh is looking ahead and is planning to create a new infrastructure for metro transportation. In less than twelve years, we had the great honor to design the iconic station of the financial district, the symbol of the overall infrastructure project, and looking at reducing the amount of carbonous that we will use to operate it. Well, easy enough. We took inspiration from middle eastern traditional architecture. We combined it with mediterranean vernacular architecture. We kept the building away from the sun, we created shadow, we created small openings, but still capable of bringing in enough natural light. So there's a lot we can do in this aspect.

But what about the embodied carbon? What about the carbon that is necessary in the production, that is released in the production of the materials for the construction and the construction itself? This is another building we designed for the italian high speed network. It's the station of Naples. So imagine now that you are the architect of this building and you have designed it in such a way that is a bridge over the railway track. Because in this way you can take advantage and freely orientate the main body of the building in such a way that is protected from the south and is offering the best site on the north for the glazed facades is shut, sheltering all the administration offices underneath its belly. And you want the main passenger center to be this large public plaza, which is inundated with natural green, totally free light.

So imagine now you are about to complete the building, and there's a delegation from the government, the prime minister, ministry, infrastructure are coming for the opening, and they might want to anticipate, over two, three months, the opening. And this has been set for the beginning of July at noon. Now, what is your worst nightmare? I'll tell you what mine was. The building is not completed. You can see there are holes here and there, and the whole air conditioning system has not been installed yet at all. So now you have to rely on those bioclimatic passive measures of protection from the environment that you have implemented at the beginning, and in particular to the natural ventilation, which is a great resource we have at this latitude, not in the desert, but it works. It works perfectly. We were perfectly cool and fresh during the old events.

But again, what about the embodied carbon, the carbon produced to put together the construction? Now, let's go back to the fancy yacht that some of you might have. Think of at the beginning. What is the most luxuries? What is the most luxurious experience you would crave? How about having these boats fully propelled by a totally green electric engine with no issues of range and capacity? How about not having issues of discharging difficult material to recycle and have the freedom of full range? Well, is this even possible? Maybe in the future.

About a year ago, we started working, collaborating with an italian company that is aiming at providing an infrastructure for the distribution of green hydrogen to the maritime sector all over the Mediterranean. So we are designing their refueling station. We're taking inspiration from the roman engineering, we're taking inspiration from the architecture of the therma. And we came with the concept that would be suitable for Venice, as well as portofino, as well for Marseilles and so on.

We use a printable concrete so that we can choose a mix that is taking advantage of less expensive in terms of carbon, embodied concrete. We can mix it with local colors to make it suitable for each location. And we can shape the blocks in such a way that they would assemble together without the needs of any structural steel reinforcement, exactly like the roman engineers would have done. So the advantage is that at the end of the cycle of this building, we can crush it and we can reduce it in crumbles and reuse it for another mix of concrete, which is similar to the one we used at the beginning. So is that a viable solution to reduce embodied carbon? Yes, it is.

But how inefficient and complicated. There's a lot of energy required. There's a lot of carbon which is released in the process. So how frustrating is this all attempt of coming with sustainable solution. Think to the hydrogen. We need energy to separate the hydrogen from the water, then energy again to separate the electrons and produce more electricity. This is all very inefficient and exhausting. But what is the advantage of this? It feels like this whole process is a little bit like panning piles and piles of pebbles in the river, looking for the gold. And this is important because we have to keep positive and we have to be engaged in the future to keep producing new and new ideas.

And maybe we can go back to what we were saying at the beginning. The more scarce, the more rare is our progress, the most precious. It is our achievement. And in these years of transition towards sustainable solution, these little steps ahead, they have the value of pure gold, of pure luxury. But hold on, what about all the pebbles? What about all the rubbles that we left down at the river that we've been digging through in all this time? Well, this is not waste. This is actually the best byproduct of this whole process. This is a metaphor of the advancements of our knowledge. This is basically the metaphor for the progress. And within these ideas, there will be those one, there will be the solution to those problems that we yet don't even know we will have. And those will be the big thing of tomorrow, provided that we keep being engaged and passionate and positive. Be brave.

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