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Trahan Architects unveils U.S. pavilion design for Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai

2024-02-08T15:06:00-05:00

Trahan Architects has unveiled its USA Pavilion design for World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. The county’s official entry will play host to a slate of exhibitions designed to showcase American scientific exploration and entrepreneurship and will be completed by an official project team that includes HOOD Design, Dot Dash, and several other specialty studios.

Chicago's former Mayor and the current U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, says it will stand as "an embodiment of American spirit." Organizers are expecting approximately 30 million visitors.

Image: © Trahan Architects

Visitors will pass through a ringed wall that surrounds the Expo before entering the pavilion, which is separated into two wings that are connected via a suspended cubic form serving as a skybridge.

Image: © Trahan Architects

Exterior LED screens installed on its facade will broadcast scenes of America’s urban and natural landscapes. The project reuses steel, HVAC systems, and tensile fabric used in structures o...

Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill unveils Al Wasl Plaza scheme for Dubai Expo 2020

2017-04-26T20:07:00-04:00

After securing the commission in a fierce competition, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture revealed their design of the Al Wasl Plaza for the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. As the Expo's last major design element to be finalized, AS+GG's building will stand among other major pavilions designed by Foster + Partners, Grimshaw, BIG, and Santiago Calatrava's falcon-like UAE Pavilion. Back in 2013, AS+GG had the winning scheme for the 2017 Astana World Expo site.

According to the architects, Al Wasl Plaza is named after a historical reference to Dubai and also translates to “connection”, pertaining to the Expo's overall “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” theme.

Al Wasl Plaza will be a central event hub at the heart of the 4.38-square kilometer Expo site that is being masterplanned by HOK, Populous and Arup. It'll also connect the three sub-thematic districts, “Opportunity”, “Sustainability”, and “Mobility” — whose pavilions are being designed by BIG, Grimshaw, and Foster + Partners, r...

Dror envisions second geodesic dome in Montreal's Expo 67 site

2016-04-26T14:24:00-04:00

Originally built as the U.S. Pavilion in the memorable World Expo of 1967, the steel structural frame of Buckminster Fuller's Biosphere remains standing to this day as a sole landmark in Montreal's Parc Jean-Drapeau. In planning for the 50th anniversary of Expo 67 as well as Montreal's 375th anniversary next April, designer Dror Benshetrit of the New York-based practice Dror came up with the idea for adding, what do you know, a second geodesic dome near the Biosphere.

After touring Montreal's Île Sainte-Hélène with the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Benshetrit thought of a second dome as a way to help reinvigorate the seasonally used Expo 67 site grounds and evidently pay tribute to Fuller's landmark. Compared to the Biosphere, which is 76 meters in diameter and 62 meters high, Dror's proposed dome is a 150-meter-wide aluminum latticed sphere with a planted canopy.

The studio describes that its vegetated cover would act as a natural sound buffer and provide an enchanting public enviro...

$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

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...

Los Angeles envisions the first "decentralized" World's Fair (yes, including Hyperloop)

2015-04-17T19:51:00-04:00

A group of venture capitalists, architects, engineers, and marketing gurus, under the name Los Angeles World's Fair (LAWF), are brewing plans for a two-year fair showing off the technology and culture of the future—including a Hyperloop, “3D-printed gourmet delicacies,” and self-driving cars. Theme: "The Connected City." Right now, they're trying to pull together $100,000 on Indiegogo to support economic and architectural feasibility studies for their plans [...].

Visit (and support if you're so inclined) the initiative's Indiegogo campaign here.

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.

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...

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.

Dubai chosen for World Expo 2020 with HOK-led master plan

2013-12-05T18:48:00-05:00

Dubai won the bid to host the World Expo 2020, being the first Middle Eastern city selected in the Expo's 160-year history. HOK, in partnership with Populous and Arup, led the design team that developed the master plan, themed "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future." Their proposal won against those from Brazil, Russia, and Turkey. The 1,082-acre (438-hectare) Expo site is equidistant from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, next to the new Al Maktoum International Airport and near the Jebel Ali Port.

Images: HOK