Milan Expo 2015

[B-DRAGON]

■Milan Expo 2015

• by Karen Cilento
• Architecture News Cultural Exhibition Herzog and de Meuron Italy London School of Economics Milan Milan Expo 2015 Stefano Boeri Architetti William McDonough

 The Expo 2015 will take place in Milan from 01 May to 31 October 2015.

© Herzog & de Meuron

The conceptual master plan for the Milan World Exposition 2015 resulted from the teamwork of five architects: Jacques Herzog, Mark Rylander, Ricky Burdett, Stefano Boeri, and William McDonough.  Working with the theme “feeding the planet, energy for life”, the exposition will be a planetary botanical garden that will “feed Milan literally, spiritually and intellectually.”  The architects created the framework for the exposition and organized an orthogonal bridge that contains an agrofood park and is surrounded by water ways.

More about the new concept after the break.

The idea for this planetary botanical garden is based on the Ancient Roman urban plans that included twin axes (the cardo and the decumanus) with a central forum.  The two axis create a grid of spaces where some will be developed by the exposition, and other spaces will be give to individual countries to design.

In the new plan, the first axis includes a 1.4 kilometres long boulevard where visitors can walk or bicycle, and a second axis that will reflect the geometries of the surrounding farmlands. In place of a forum, a large planetary table will allow people to rest, while looking at the pavilion and sampling the food produced and offered by the different countries represented.

The five architects also rethought the water ways “to focus attention and resources on the reclamation and redevelopment of public and municipal farmsteads.”  The network of canals that run through the countryside will extend the living energy of the expo site to areas beyond its immediate boundaries.

© herzog & demeuron

© herzog & demeuron

© herzog & demeuron

© stefano boeri architetti

© herzog & demeuron

© herzog & demeuron

© stefano boeri architetti

credits:
conceptual master plan – feeding the planet, energy for life
by herzog & de meuron, jacques herzog
london school of ecomics, ricky burdett
stefano boeri architetti, stefano boeri
william mcdonough + partners, william mcdonough

■Milan Expo 2015: Shortlisted Designs Revealed for UK Pavilion

• by Karissa Rosenfield
• Architecture News Competitions Milan Expo 2015 UK

Team 2. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Details have been released on the eight proposals competing to serve as the UK Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo. Each design draws inspiration from the theme “Grown in Britain: Shared Globally,” which is intended to showcase Britain’s contribution in research, innovation and entrepreneurship to the global food challenges. 

Presented anonymously, the proposals will be reviewed by an esteemed jury before a winner is announced in May. 

Check out all the innovative proposals, after the break…

Team 1’s proposal would be “the first to visualize the entire world’s population (7.2 billion people) in three dimensions,” focusing on the challenge to feed our growing society.  

Team 1. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 1. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 2 has designed a three-dimensional infinity loop – the UK Food Machine – that represents “the future imperative for a joined up food chain” and envisions an advanced agricultural nation.

Team 2. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 2. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 3’s forest of 1296 reusable telegraph poles “dissolves the border between exterior and interior” and takes visitors through an augmented reality that transforms the Pavilion’s physical environment and communicates the Expo’s “multifaceted and coherent style.”

Team 3. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 3. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 4 proposes a collaborative and interactive exhibition that shows just how British agriculture, technology and food have “positively impacted the world.”

Team 4. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 4. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 5 envisions “BE,” a pulsating virtual hive that highlights the plight of the honeybee and offers an “immersive sensory experience” that leaves visitors with a “lasting flavor of the British landscape.”

Team 5. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 5. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 6’s #silentcurrency uses water as a metaphor to address the Expo’s theme and inspire new support to help end our “profligate use of nature’s silent currency.”

Team 6. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 6. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 7 designed the “Strawberry Fields Forever” glasshouse to reveal the “remarkable story of how British scientific and technological innovations are benefiting global food production and consumption.”

Team 7. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 7. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 8 proposes a “collection of flexible built elements and experiences” that combines four themes of THINKERS + GROWERS + MAKERS = SHARERS to celebrate “the people and ideas that are leading scientific research, agriculture, food production and food consumption.”

Team 8. Image Courtesy of UKTI

Team 8. Image Courtesy of UKTI

The UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) has also announced the jury responsible for selecting a design:

• Andrew Summers CMG (Chair), former Chief Executive of the Design Council and current Chairman of Westminster Business School.
• Moira Gemmill, Director of Design and FuturePlan at the V&A Museum
• Roddy Langmuir, Senior Director of Cullinan Studio and chair of design review for Architecture and Design Scotland
• Tom Aikens, Michelin star winning chef, author and restaurateur
• Melanie Leech, Director General of the Food and Drink Federation
• Michael Lynch OBE, UK Business Ambassador and Partner of Invoke Capital
• Lord Puttnam, Labour Peer, film producer and UK Trade Envoy to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
• Hannah Corbett, UK Commissioner General and Director, UK Pavilion Milan Expo 2015

You can review the eight shortlisted teams, here. 

■Milan Expo 2015: SoNo Arhitekti-Designed Pavilion to Represent Slovenia

• by Karissa Rosenfield
• Cultural Architecture News Italy Milan Milan Expo 2015 Slovenia SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

SoNo Arhitekti’s design for the Slovenian Pavilion has been chosen to represent the country at the 2015 Milan Expo. One of 142 participants, Slovenia’s pavilion will be based on the slogan, “I FEEL SLOVENIA. Green. Active. Healthy.”

The common thread in the exhibition manifests itself through a series of interactive and architectural elements throughout the pavilion. As the architects describe, “Five prismatical structures, positioned on the geometrically and dynamically designed surface, whose shape is reminiscent of a cultivated field, will represent Slovenian diverse geographical landscape and symbolize fundamental ideas of sustainable development.”

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

Architects: SoNo Arhitekti
Location: Milan, Italy
Design Team: Edvard Blažko (architect), Marko Volk (architect), Nina Tešanović (architect), Nejc Batistič (architect), Samo Radinja (architect), Matija Kocbek (art director), Tomaž Bavdež (landscape designer)
Mechanical Engineer: Biro ES
Civil Engineer: CBD
Building Contractor: Lumar IG
Area: 800.0 sqm
Year: 2015
Photographs: SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

© SoNo Arhitekti

Cite: Rosenfield, Karissa. "Milan Expo 2015: SoNo Arhitekti-Designed Pavilion to Represent Slovenia" 09 Oct 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed 09 Oct 2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=555483>