Food for thought: the best pavilions of Expo Milan 2015

By Giovanna Dunmall
Wallpaper, May 8, 2015

The global architectural extravaganza that is the World Expo is once again upon us and it is Milan’s turn to play host.

The original master-planners, a team that included Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, walked out in 2011 after their vision for a new typology of the Expo, one based on content rather than the individualist (and often propagandist) architecture of national pavilions, was rejected by the organisers.

(Image: ‘The Nursery of Italy’ The Palazzo Italia faces the Piazza d’Acqua (the Water Square) in the design of the host country’s pavilion. Photo: (copyright) Nemesi&Partners, courtesty of Wallpaper)

The results – despite much decried construction delays and other colourful scandals – were in turn demented, elegant, garish and at times audacious; a sort of global Eurovision song contest in building form. Often the exhibition’s avowed theme, Feeding the Planet – Energy for Life, seemed merely an excuse to have a restaurant outlet and/or a shop selling national produce. Read more…