June 2, 2015 • lifestyle • Views: 3693

Here at DYH we were counting days until the official opening of this year’s Expo Milano 2015. For those of you less familiar, this universal annual exhibition is a global showcase where countries can participate and exhibit the best of their culture, technology and innovation in the most creative way possible. This spectacular event will be hosted in Milan, Italy from 1^st May to 31^st October. More importantly the theme of this year’s Expo is “Feeding the Planet – Energy for Life” and all 140 participating countries will present their answer to sustainability and clever solutions for healthy and sufficient food while respecting the planet. The 1.1 million square meters of exhibition area is expecting to welcome over 20 million visitors ready to explore and taste the world’s best dishes and gastronomic traditions. Walking amongst the architectural marvel of pavilions we picked the top 5 which were instantly impressive with clever design and purpose. Bahrain Pavillion The pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain offers a direct visual reference to the country’s agrarian heritage with long, ancient history. The structure of the pavilion has a floating, organic shape, with lots of cut-out sections offering instant view of green mini gardens. The creatives behind this impressive structure are Studio Anne Holtrop with landscape architect Anouk Vogel, who cleverly positioned 10 different fruit gardens, each with distinct trees that will bear fruits at a different time throughout the 6 months of the Expo. In addition to the beautiful flora scenery, the pavilion also displays archaeological artefacts, to showcase Bahrain’s long history and tradition of agriculture dating some 1000 years back. Due to various myths the monarchy prides itself as the location of the Garden of Eden and the land of the million palm trees, implied through the design of the pavilion. After the Expo the structure will be disassembled, brought back to the country and rebuilt to serve as a botanical garden – proving its original values of recycling and sustainability. United Kingdom Pavilion More popular as the Virtual Beehive, the United Kingdom pavilion at the Expo 2015 Milano offers an unorthodox architectural structure, which appears extremely imaginative and at the same time technical. The pavilion comprises nearly 170,000 pieces of aluminium and steel, which form the 14-meter dome. Inside, visitors are instantly submerged into a sensory experience with audio and visual effects, which mimic the activity of a real beehive. The aim of the pavilion was to leave visitors with a flavour and longing for the British landscape, celebrating its natural richness, colours and produce. In front of the “hive” there is a geometrically executed wildflower meadow, naturally staging the virtual beehive as the focal point of the composition. China Pavilion The beautiful structure of the China Pavilion reflects the country’s ideology as a “land of hope” reinforcing the notion that hope can be realized by the harmonious existence of city and nature. The unique structure differs from the rest of the pavilions by appearing as field of spaces. The organic, rippling shape of the rooftop creates the notion of a lightweight flow, merging underneath it the profile of a city skyline opposite the profile of a landscape. The roof of the pavilion has a reference to the traditional Chinese timber architecture, integrated with modern technology in order to support the long spans. Underneath the roof, the ground space is defined as the landscape of wheat which has a direct reference to China’s agrarian culture and past. The centrepiece of the exhibition programme is a large LED multimedia installation, which seamlessly merges with the nature-inspired setting of the pavilion. Brazilian Pavilion As anticipated, the Brazilian Pavilion offers a fun and at the sane time educational experience for the visitors of Expo Milan2015. The architecture is constructed by Studio Arthur Casas and Atelier Marko Brajovic successfully combining high technology and scenography to offer all-round experience, which communicates the farming and agriculture values of the country. Brazil’s motto for this year’s expo is “Feeding the world with solutions” and the pavilion provides everything from information, learning, interaction and leisure. Large part of the installation is a stretched net for people to bounce around, creating the desired notion of unexpected places for leisure and rest. The earthy colours of the metal structure reflect the country’s natural landscape and create an uniform feel between the inside and outside. With over 130 constructions the pavilion aims to create a square, drawing people together for socialising. Vietnam Pavilion The Vietnam Pavilion reflects on the current humanitarian issues, imposed by the fast growth of our population, now accounting to 7 billion, parallel to the rise in our dependency in technology and technological development. Despite improvements in out standards of life, the population is still suffering from poverty and wars. Reflecting on that the theme of the Vietnam Pavilion is to offer not only food for the body, but also food for mind. Loyal to the Eastern believes and philosophy, their efforts are to create a harmonized living environment to bring a positive charge to the human soul and mind. Spreading on 400 sqm the pavilion comprises of tree-like structures reinforcing the message of bringing the greenery and flora to the city life.   Picture source: www.archidaily.com

Tags: architecture, design, Expo milan 2015, inspiration