MILAN EXPO


The European Pavilion Architecture: Nemesi & Partners Exhibition design: BRC Imagination Arts


Christian Lachel


Vice president, BRC Imagination Arts


What’s the aim of the EU Pavilion? Since its inception, the EU has been about bringing people together around a common idea and common policies. Because the Expo is about feeding the world’s population, our story features agriculture and science working together to solve some of the biggest issues we’re facing today. We’ve got to pull together to address global hunger, food safety, nutrition, sustainability, the environment, and climate change. The story of Sylvia and Alex offers an engaging and entertaining way into these serious issues. Europe is leading the way in best practices, and experiencing how those practices improve the lives of characters they come to care about helps visitors take in those ideas in a way that resonates with them emotionally and sticks with them after they leave the Expo.


The European Union chose experience designers BRC Imagination Arts to develop a series of activities to showcase EU agricultural policies, research and development global food assistance. BRC came up with a family-friendly experience with two animated characters at its heart; Sylvie, a scientist and Alex, a farmer.


Can you talk us through the experience? We’ve created a really fun story about two animated characters: Sylvia, a scientist, and Alex, a farmer. In the queue, we follow both Alex’s and Sylvia’s families through a series of photos and mementoes; the family stories develop alongside the birth and growth of the EU after World War II. In the pre-show, we enter the storybook world of our characters. The story comes to life through projection mapping, LCD media screens, dynamic audio, and other techniques. The main show features an animated 4-K fi lm and dynamic theatre effects, including a platform with vibration fl oor speakers. Guests exit the fi lm into the content centre, where they can learn what happens to Sylvia and Alex after the fi lm, and explore key messages by interacting with three custom touch screen storybooks and games.


The pavilion’s ceramic


red tiles have sustainable self-cleaning and air purifi cation properties


China Vanke Pavilion Architect: Daniel Libeskind Exhibition design: Ralph Appelbaum


ITALY PAVILION Architect: Nemesi & Partners Proger & BMS Progetti: Engineering & cost management


The Italian Pavilion, the only permanent structure on the site, has been designed by Nemesi & Partners, who worked with engineers Proger and BMS Progetti and sustainability consultant Livio De Santoli. It features a ‘smog fi ltering’ façade in the form of special cement panels designed by Italcementi Group. The design of the façade was


inspired by branches in a thick forest.


With its shimmering red ‘scales’ and dynamic, twisting form, the Daniel Libeskind-designed Vanke Pavilion is probably one of the most widely recognised images from the Expo. Libeskind was enlisted by Chinese developer Vanke to design its 1,000sq m pavilion. Libeskind has designed a curved building clad in shimmering red tiles with a large opening leading up to a rooftop terrace. Two spiralling staircases ascend the building, serving as both circulation and seating. Inside, exhibition designer Ralph Appelbaum has created an exhibition centred around the idea of shitang – or table – and its role in Chinese society. The main space features a ‘forest’ of bamboo stems – resembling a giant game of Kerplunk – with 200 screens attached to the stems showing short fi lms depicting the importance of food in the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens. At the end of the Expo, all of the pavilion’s steel elements will be collected and reused.


122 CLADGLOBAL.COM CLADmag 2015 ISSUE 2


PHOTO: ©MARIO + PIETRO CARRIERI BY ITALCEMENTI


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