Archinect - News

$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...

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.

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” [...].

Wilkinson Eyre Architects accuse Italians of plagiarism over tree design

2014-12-08T11:50:00-05:00

“I think it’s definitely derivative of the Gardens by the Bay concept,” Chris Wilkinson, one of the British architects responsible for the “super-trees” in Singapore’s Marina Bay, told The Daily Telegraph. “You’d have expected them to have come up with something a bit more original.”

"Super Trees", Singapore, designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects