Expo 2015: United Kingdom Pavilion
A sensory journey through orchards and meadows of wild flowers leads to a metallic mega-hive, reproducing the experience of honey bees.
domusweb.it
The United Kingdom participate in the Expo Milano 2015 with a pavilion inspired by scientific research and cutting-edge technology, where has been highlighted the key role that pollination takes place in the food chain. The United Kingdom Pavilion, entitled “Grown in Britain & Northern Ireland” reproduces the path made by the honey bee, from an orchard, through a flowery meadow until they return to the hive. The Pavilion, in fact, is a real beehive, made possible thanks to the research of Dr. Martin Bencsik, which for years has monitored the behavior of these insects. With the metaphor of the beehive, the British Pavilion project aims to express the idea that the UK is indeed a hive in constant ferment, which is committed to find and spread globally useful solutions to solve the main problems of our world as global challenges related to food.
The structure, designed by the artist Wolfgang Buttress of Nottingham with the collaboration of the Simmonds Studio for the structural design, and the architectural firm BDP is located about halfway along the Decumano and just before the intersection with the Cardo.
The exhibition conceived in the British Pavilion is preceded by a small orchard near which there is a wooden wall studded with tiny holes in each of which you can see animated images of honey bees buzzing and pollinate. A staircase leads to the upper level where there is the meadows of wild flowers which is a labyrinthine path and gives the impression of living the experience of the bees which roam in the meadows in search of flowers to pollinate. The grassland is contained by flower beds in corten steel, a material with endless colors and shades used for wall cladding. At the end of the lawn, you reach the big metallic beehive,
domusweb.ita reticular structure 14 meters high and composed of approximately 169,300 pieces transported from the UK to Italy separately before being assembled at the Expo. Inside the hive , which can be accessed from the upper level , a combination of audio and visual effects reproduce the movements of bees within the hive . It turns out , with great astonishment , that everything does not happen at random : the higher or lower degree of brightness of the lights is due to the fact that each LED is connected to a bee into a real hive in Nottingham.
An exciting experience what it feels like visiting the Pavilion of the United Kingdom , which is pursuing a very original its secular experience in shows, remembering in fact, that the first World Expo Fair was organized just in London in 1851.