Location Milan (Italy)
Client Sociedad Estatal de Acción Cultural, S.A. (AC/E)
Area 2.341 m²
Year 2015
Status Completed-Built
Typology Cultural
Collaborator Pulgon y Antonio Miralda
Photography Adrià Goula, Cosentino
Team Fermín Vázquez, Peco Mulet, Albert Freixes, Eduardo Varas, Caterina Dominioni, Alberto Garcia, Alejandro García, Valerio Decrecchio, Gemma Ojea, Pablo Garrido, Iván Arellano, Javier Artieda, Zelia Alves, David Sebastián, Elisabeth Usón, Julita Jaskulska, Ourania Pappa, Annie Michaelides, Daniel Quadfielg
First prize in open design ideas competition
Faced with the challenge of giving a recognizable identity to the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015, held under the slogan “Feeding the planet, energy for life”, we chose to use as a main reference one of the most typical architectures of contemporary agricultural production: greenhouses, geometrically simple constructions but complex technology, a true reflection of the sophistication of today’s food industry.
Much of the success of Spanish food production today is based on a combination of tradition and innovation, a characteristic that the architecture of the pavilion itself aims to recreate through a composition structured in two twin halls, differentiated only by their materiality. The first shed corresponds to tradition, represented by a repetitive series of exposed laminated wood porticoes that, in addition to fulfilling a structural support mission, form a lattice that defines the space. The second shed is related to innovation. In this case, the porticoes are covered with polished stainless steel, blurring the pavilion’s boundaries with their reflections and evoking the advanced world of high technology.
The Spanish Pavilion, as a temporary building, not only aims to manage energy and material resources efficiently and responsibly, but also to make its efficient character visible. The use of natural and prefabricated construction products is combined with a mostly semi-outdoor environment, thus minimizing the need for air-conditioned spaces while intensifying the pavilion’s relationship with the immediate surroundings of the fairgrounds; an additional nod to the nation and the taste of its people for life in the street being represented.
