GelatoWall. The future of gelato becomes smart.

From the intuition of design as an instrument of universal revolution and respectful of the individual to the realization of a product that subverts traditional concepts of space and reality to build a new world around it. The designer Simone Micheli tells us about the essence and function of the latest revolution in the world of ice cream born in Ciam, and the result of a collaboration that combines cutting-edge technology and design in a vision that imagines the future to transform it into the present.

Where did the insight of GelatoWall come from and what importance does design have in interpreting reality?

To design means to plan, to pro-ject, to throw forward. From the Latin “projectum”, to build in order to arrive in the future, to imagine comfortable ways to reach it. To make the lives of every human being better, more comfortable, more beautiful, simpler. More respectful and responsible for the environment in which we live every day. Design, therefore, as an individual’s tool to shape the world around him and to grasp, know and understand reality. Design as a colored lens through which to perceive what is outside of us. As a trace, a sign, a manifesto of the capacity for human “making”. Symbol of evolving eras. Gelato Wall, the vertical gelato parlour born from the encounter with CIAM, takes shape from this perception of the universe. It was born from the intuition that every work of art is a manifestation of thought, historically determined, socially influenced, but aimed at ripping apart the banality of the present to open in the minds provocative glimpses of possible future.

What are the aspects driving your collaboration with CIAM?

Innovation, cutting-edge technology and design. Extreme attention to the requirements of the user, the human being, who is not a standard to be reached, but a person to be respected. The specific focus on these issues, that are the basis of Gelato Wall, take shape from the meeting with CIAM, a leading company in the Ho.Re.Ca. sector, that combines design and technology to give shape to unexpected projects, able to revolutionize the answers to the needs of users. From the fusion of our visions, from the meeting between the know-how of CIAM and my design concept have come to life enlightened thoughts and brilliant realizations of dreams to which we have given a shape thanks to Gelato Wall.

On what does the choice of a vertical design depend?

Translating into a simple approach the complexity of our hyper-frenetic time, and at times exhausting, represents the fil rouge that animates my design work and is also the ideological basis that gave birth to GelatoWall. In particular, it pushed me to imagine reduced and revolutionary volumetric environments, capable of subverting traditional conceptions of reality. To invite the mind to explore the unknown, not to stop, to have the courage to dare and discover. Giving life to a vertical display case meant modifying the human aspect of the gelato shop, bringing to the center the idea of space, not as a mere extension, but as a dimension of the universe that, together with time, constitutes the stage on which physical phenomena take place. In this way, saving space means decreasing the waste of surfaces and materials, encouraging the ideal dimension of reality, the philosophical, conceptual one, which is essential to imagine the future and try to transform it into the present.

What is the real revolution of GelatoWall?

GelatoWall is a low temperature wall showcase, a work of art with unique characteristics, designed to enclose in a single element its entire innovative and interactive universe. Overcome the fragmentation of knowledge, give life to a unique organism, highly distinctive, recognizable, in which each component takes on a role that also derives from the connections that can be established with the Other. Barriers are overcome both in the definition of clean and integrated shapes, and with regard to the client who becomes the center of a new experience, shaped on his needs, immersive because the concepts of virtual and earthly world combine. The operator is free from any possible bother in the preparation of ice cream, driven to interact with the customer, to understand his needs in an instant, without filters.

How important is technology in the development of a product like this?

A simple, direct and immediate approach is also at the heart of the technological innovation that shapes GelatoWall. The automation of services tends towards a concept of absolute functionality that, however, is not pure but becomes a mixture of content and form, a Hegelian synthesis that goes beyond the sum of the parts and founds new concepts. It favors the possibilities of action of the operator who, by moving, thanks to laser detection, activates the opening of the insulated doors. From the Touch Pro control unit to the automated checkout, everything is organized, imagined to facilitate the execution and impact as little as possible on the environment.

What do you think is the great innovation that the future will bring us?

The choices that until recently were based only on the perception of the moment, today become interactive, capable of generating a 360° experience for the customer, which becomes totalizing and able to turn into memory in the person’s mind. An experience capable of activating the complete, and sometimes lost, sensoriality of man. The fusion between virtual and real is increasingly giving rise to a new meaning of the world, in every field of human knowledge and action. A perception of things that encourages the unknown, the unconscious, the not explicitly said. In which the components integrate and connect. With GelatoWall, the future of gelato also becomes smart. That is to say, intelligent, capable of grasping, perceiving and satisfying the desires of the human being, going beyond passive execution.