The Austrian Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015: “Breathe.Austria”
The Pavilion of Austria plays the microclimate of an Austrian forest. To Visitors is given the exploration of a space that, in the absence of air conditioning, air will be cooled by natural cooling effect of the evapotranspiration of the plants.
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The Austrian pavilion at Expo Milano 2015, is the result of the European Union competition, which had as winner Prof. Klaus K. Loenhart, with his idea entitled “breathe.austria” (respira.austria), leading the interdisciplinary team Terrain composed by representatives of the Polytechnic of Gratz and the University of Agricultural Sciences in Vienna. The basic concept of this pavilion is “air” as a primary means of livelihood. The whole exhibition area is submerged in a context of indigenous trees. It will therefore play an Austrian forest that will provide well-62.5 Kg of oxygen per hour, offering wellbeing and eliminating CO2. The total area of the hall is 2,000 m2, while the area that includes the “forest” has an extension of 560 m2.
The forest includes 60 trees, as high as 12 meters. There are many varieties of plant , from simple mosses, bushes, until you come to tall trees. Higher exceed most other pavilions, giving us a nice scenic effect from afar. This lush vegetation will bring many benefits to visitors who will enjoy, especially in the summer, the coolness created by the trees. Moreover, thanks to evapotranspiration of the forest land in this area is perceived a lower temperature of 5 ° C than the outside.
Special attention was also paid to energy efficiency, using the innovative “solar colorant cells ” system developed and patented by Prof. Michael Grätzel, where light is converted into current by a coloring matter similar to chlorophyll. This innovative type of cell, is able to take advantage of the weaker lighting, so even the night light of the pavilion will be harnessed to produce energy.
It is paid great attention aspect of lighting Pavilion. In fact, although in the morning it exploits the natural light that illuminates the very open structure of the Pavilion, the evening will be used to spot led to very low power consumption, and with good power (120 Lumen / Watt).
Header Image Credits: stile.it, Luca Quarato