Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
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. — Bloomberg CityLab
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — Architectural Record
"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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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.”
— nytimes.com
Previously:Thinc Design's USA Pavilion exhibition presents America's role in the future of food for Milan Expo 2015A preview of Biber Architects’ USA Pavilion design for Milan Expo 201 View full entry
'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 — uncubemagazine.com
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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” [...].
— qz.com
Related: End of weird architecture in China? View full entry
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. — bustler.net
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.Read more about it on Bustler. View full entry
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 [...].
— theartnewspaper.com
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... View full entry
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.
— bustler.net
Check out the rest of the proposal on Bustler. View full entry
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." — bustler.net
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... View full entry
