Archinect - News

Milan's former Expo 2015 site is being remade into a tech-centric innovation district

2022-01-25T20:07:00-05:00

Italy’s financial center is taking cues from Silicon Valley to transform an area more than twice the size of the Vatican into a sustainable, post-pandemic technology center. The 4.5 billion-euro ($5.1 billion) redevelopment of one of Europe’s biggest vacant lots includes research labs, a startup accelerator and a science campus.

The district will be located about 7.5 miles north from the city’s main core and financial district, which has helped it to power the Italian economy for generations. Plans for the new district include offices and housing accommodation for up to 60,000 people run entirely on renewable energy and made from recycled materials. The former industrial site was also famously home to Milan Expo 2015, which drew some 22 million visitors during its six-month run and has since been partially dismantled.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca has already moved all of its Italian operations into space on the massive 16.1 million-square-foot site. Other tenants such as the University of Milan are soon to follow. An estimated value of $3.6 billion has been placed on the planned 2025 project, which is still in the process of being molded according to the CEO for Lendlease, the Australian development group spearheading the public-private partnership behind the project.

“Its initial design was quite conventional,”...

The Hive pavilion moves to Kew Gardens

2016-07-07T12:38:00-04:00

Kew Gardens has been home to many notable sculptures and architectural pieces such as Henry Moore’s “Reclining Mother and Child” and Marks Barfield Architect’s “Tree Top Walkway”. So it was no surprise when it was chosen to showcase “The Hive”.

The Hive is the award-wining pavilion designed by artist Wolfgang Buttress and built by architectural practice BDP and engineers Simmonds Studio. It was first created for the 2015 Milan Expo where it attracted over 3.3 million visitors and became one of the main attractions. It is the first structure to be brought back to Britain after an Expo.

The Hive brings together art, science, sound and landscape representing the important relationship between bee and human.

Prompted by the theme "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" the Hive seeks to showcase the relationship between humans and bees. It’s outer structure is made from aluminum rods arranged hexagonally in a honeycomb fashion. The porous construction mimics the whirlwind motion made by a sw...

$26M shortfall of Milan Expo U.S. Pavilion calls for change in funding process

2016-03-18T14:51:00-04:00

Since the 1990s, the U.S. State Department has been barred from spending public funds on world expo pavilions. The result has been a series of disasters...Last year, the U.S. made a strong showing at the Milan Expo...But now comes a denouement that may cripple chances of there ever being a successful U.S. pavilion again: the architect, the exhibition designer, and the contractor have been paid only a fraction of what they are owed for work on the pavilion.

"According to sources who participated in a recent conference call between the [Friends of the USA Pavilion Milan 2015] group and the creditors [which includes Biber Architects and Thinc Design], there was discussion about whether federal departments other than State, such as the Department of Agriculture, could make up the shortfall. Another conference call is scheduled for March 24."

Previous coverage about this project on Archinect:

Hot Dogs Around the World: James Biber, architect of US Pavilion "American Food 2.0" at EXPO Milan, joins us for Episode #31 of Archinect Sessions

The now-open Milan Expo U.S. pavilion salutes to the future of food, the American way

Identity Parade: The USA Pavilion and its Neighbors at Expo Milano 2015

Thinc Design's USA Pavilion exhibition presents America's role in the future of food for Milan Expo 2015

Hot Dogs Around the World: James Biber, architect of US Pavilion "American Food 2.0" at EXPO Milan, joins us for Episode #31 of Archinect Sessions

2015-05-28T17:49:00-04:00

Inadvertently, this episode is all about food – where it comes from, where we eat it, and how it shapes national identity. Our discussion on food and design starts in Los Angeles, where Norm's Restaurant recently received "historic and cultural" landmark status, and a tamale-shaped building strives for the same (just one of LA's many proud programmatic architectures). Shifting east, we extol the multi-uses and virtues of Waffle House, and praise the Waffle House index. This dovetailed across the Atlantic into our interview with James Biber of Biber Architects about his design for the US Pavilion at the Milan EXPO, entitled "American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet". We ask him about balancing corporate and national identities in food, and what it's like having the US State Department as a client.

Listen to episode thirty-one of Archinect Sessions, "Hot Dogs Around the World":

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download n...

The now-open Milan Expo U.S. pavilion salutes to the future of food, the American way

2015-05-06T13:17:00-04:00

Since breaking ground last summer, the U.S. Pavilion -- titled “American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet" -- has opened to the public at the Milan Expo 2015, which is now in its first week. The U.S. joins the more than 140 participating countries that prepared exhibitions and pavilions that respond to the Expo's overall theme of "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life", which addresses the global issue of food security, access, and the ideal goal to nutritiously feeding more than 9 billion people by 2050.

Designed by New York-based Biber Architects, the pavilion puts on display America's pivotal role in the future of food that emphasizes "openness, transparency and accessibility" in an exhibition designed by Thinc Design. The open barn-inspired structure includes a harvestable hydroponic vertical farm and "uniquely American" (if not consumerist-enticing) features like an expansive boardwalk and a series of food trucks.

Check out photos of the fully constructed pavilion and more detai...

A peek into the UK's beehive-inspired pavilion for Milan Expo 2015

2015-04-29T18:24:00-04:00

As the issue of bee population decline continues to gain more public attention, the United Kingdom's Milan Expo 2015 pavilion, "The Hive", pays tribute to the hard-working honeybees and their essential role of pollination in helping produce the food we eat. Once the 1,910 m2 pavilion officially opens this Friday at the Milan Expo, it will serve as a space for a program of UK business, science and cultural events during the Expo's six-month run.

Designed by Nottingham-based artist Wolfgang Buttress in collaboration with engineer Tristan Simmonds and architectural practice BDP, the Hive's design concept was inspired by the perspective of a honeybee buzzing about its beehive. Fabricated by York-based Stage One (who has created installations for Olympic Games Ceremonies and the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion since 2009), the pavilion boasts 169,300 individual aluminum components.

Assembled into 32 horizontal layers, the pavilion's main body is made up of concentric zig-zag-shaped nodes, whic...

Identity Parade: The USA Pavilion and its Neighbors at Expo Milano 2015

2015-04-28T18:01:00-04:00

James Biber can see Russia from his roof. Mr. Biber, the architect of the USA Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015, the world’s fair that is racing to meet its opening date on Friday, also has a good view of Kuwait next door and Iran across the street. “It’s really a kind of identity parade,” Mr. Biber, 62, said about the jumble. [...] “It’s every nation attempting to express itself in a building. It is the very best and very worst of design you’re going to see in its concentrated form.”

Previously:

Jacques Herzog calls 2015 Milan Expo a wasted opportunity to reinvent the World's Fair

2015-04-02T20:56:00-04:00

'The content of the exhibitions should make the countries look different, not the size of their pavilions. Also we felt that this expo would be exactly the right place to start focusing on content, because it simply seems embarrassing to address this very important topic and at the same time built enormous, dramatically curved pavilions with facades in wavy plastic or with spectacular waterfalls or whatever.' - Jacques Herzog

In a recent interview with Berlin-based architecture magazine Uncube, Jacques Herzog dishes in on why he ditched the 2015 Milan Expo back in 2011, along with the rest of the masterplanning team that included Stefano Boeri, William McDonough, Ricky Burdett, and Herzog's own firm Herzog & de Meuron. In the interview, Herzog believes the Expo organizers weren't "powerful or courageous enough" to convince their own organization to support their "radically new" content-focused master plan in an attempt to redesign the world exhibition, as opposed to the traditional model of showcasing national pavilions. With the Milan Expo coming up in May, Herzog expects it to be yet another "vanity fair".

You can find some of the Milan Expo pavilion proposals here.

h/t constructionweekonline

Thinc Design's USA Pavilion exhibition presents America's role in the future of food for Milan Expo 2015

2015-02-23T21:02:00-05:00

New York-based Thinc Design revealed their exhibition design for the USA Pavilion in the upcoming Milan Expo 2015 this May. Collaborating with Friends of the USA Pavilion, Thinc Design's exhibition highlights America's role in the future of the global food system, as a response to the Expo's overall theme, "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life."

The food-related topic challenges the Expo's 140 participating countries to showcase their technological solutions on how to provide healthy, safe, and sufficient food for all, but through sustainable methods that won't disrupt the Earth's equilibrium.

Above: Biber Architects' architectural design for the USA Pavilion. © Biber Architects

Thinc Design's exhibition will be located inside a 26,000 sq.ft space of the USA Pavilion, designed by Biber Architects. Through a series of immersive presentations and with multilingual college-aged student "ambassadors" as guides, the exhibition will include interactive features and digital media that aim to p...

Keep China's Expo pavilions "weird"

2015-01-26T13:04:00-05:00

For six months starting on May 1st, Milan is hosting the World Expo, which has been held every five years since 1851 as a showcase for human progress. [...] Of the 53 countries constructing pavilions, China is building not one, but five. [...] Like many pavilions in the Expo, the designs of the Chinese-sponsored buildings are nothing if not adventurous—even though president Xi Jinping has called for an end to “weird architecture” [...].

A preview of Biber Architects’ USA Pavilion design for Milan Expo 2015

2014-07-31T20:03:00-04:00

Biber Architects of New York recently announced the groundbreaking of the USA Pavilion, "American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet", for the Milan World Expo in 2015. The US pavilion is one of 147 participating countries responding to the expo's theme, "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life", which addresses global issues regarding food security, access and waste, and the challenging prospect of nutritiously feeding 9 billion people by 2050.

Highlighting America's role in the global food system, the barn-inspired pavilion includes features like a a harvestable vertical farm, food trucks, and a boardwalk.

How much are curators really paid?

2014-07-18T14:30:00-04:00

Many in the art world were staggered by recent reports that the Italian curator Germano Celant is being paid €750,000 to organise a pavilion for the Milan Expo 2015. Celant’s fee, and the incredulity it provoked, raises questions about how much curators are typically paid for organising biennials and large-scale international exhibitions. The Art Newspaper surveyed around 40 international curators and biennial organisers [...].

The Urban Algae Canopy shows the power of "algaetecture" for Milan Expo 2015

2014-04-17T19:27:00-04:00

Here's another look at what to expect at the Milan Expo in 2015. As part of the Expo's Future Food District project, the Urban Algae Canopy shows the great potential of micro algae organisms for integrative greener, cleaner bio-digital architecture. London-based ecoLogicStudio designed the pavilion in collaboration with local architect Cesare Griffa.

Full-scale prototypes of the pavilion are currently being previewed at the INTERNI ‘Feeding New Ideas for the City’ exhibition at Cortile d’Onore, University of Milan, Festa del Perdono happening until April 18.

Once it's fully built, the canopy will be able to produce oxygen equivalent to 4 hectares of woodland and up to 150kg of biomass per day -- 60% of which are natural vegetal proteins.

Dig into the project details right below:

"The Urban Algae Canopy, based on ecoLogicStudio’s six years long research on building integrated bio-digital systems, is presented here with a 1:1 scale prototype of the world’s first bio-digital canopy integra...

Bence Pap and Mario Gasser’s 4th prize Austrian Pavilion entry for 2015 Milan Expo

2014-01-14T20:41:00-05:00

Architects Bence Pap and Mario Gasser from Studio Lynn/University of Applied Arts IoA sent us their entry for the Austrian Pavilion competition for the 2015 Milan Expo. Pap and Gasser's collaborative proposal won 4th prize in the international, two-stage open competition.

Check out the rest of the proposal on Bustler.

Edible Austrian Pavilion for 2015 Milan Expo by penda & Alex Daxböck

2013-10-29T19:04:00-04:00

The Austrian Pavilion by Chris Precht of penda and Alex Daxböck won first runner-up in an international design competition for the Expo 2015 in Milan. Inspired by the strong presence of organic and locally grown foods in Austria, Precht and Daxböck took a creatively literal and communal approach to the 2015 Expo's universal theme "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life."

Visitors are the true designers of the pavilion as they plant seeds of fruits, vegetables, or herbs in the gaps of its timber exterior during the summer months of the Expo. Once the crops are fully grown, they'll be harvested and cooked into traditional Austrian dishes in the pavilion's restaurant. In essence, visitors get to eat their design.